Zomato’s Experience: How App Speed Improved Customer Retention

5G is often described as a technology for higher speed. For a mobile product team, the more important change is in user expectations. People move between screens faster, consume more video, and are less willing to forgive delays.

What changes with 5G

In the 2025 Ericsson report, 5G is presented not only as a faster radio connection, but as a foundation for richer digital journeys. Higher capacity can deliver media faster, while lower latency makes interactions feel closer to instant. It does not remove slow devices, congested cells, or network transitions.

Three common team mistakes

1. Building only for ideal connectivity. An app that works well only on 5G becomes unpredictable for a large part of its audience.
2. Confusing fast loading with good experience. A screen may appear quickly but remain unusable if data and component states arrive chaotically.
3. Using extra bandwidth as an excuse for extra weight. Higher capacity is not permission to ship unlimited video, images, or JavaScript.

How to use 5G well

Start with journeys where network characteristics create real value: streaming video, collaboration, navigation, remote diagnostics, or large files. Decide what can adapt: video quality, image resolution, list density, or sync frequency.

Each journey should have at least three states: fast connectivity, slow connectivity, and temporary offline mode. The interface should explain what is happening, avoid blocking unnecessary actions, and let users return to an unfinished process.

5G works best as a multiplier for a well-designed experience. When the product logic is clear, network improvements make it smoother. When the logic is confusing, speed only gets the user to an error faster.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2025.

Market statistics are useful not when they decorate a presentation, but when they improve a decision. In 2025, several indicators describe a new reality for mobile product teams: more time in apps, more traffic, more competition, and higher quality expectations.

Four reference points

• 146 exabytes per month of mobile traffic excluding FWA—the scale of the environment products operate in.
• 22 GB per smartphone on average—a sign that mobile journeys have become regular and media-rich.
• $167 billion in in-app purchases—evidence that users pay for useful and entertaining experiences.
• 4.7 billion mobile internet users—a global audience living under very different access conditions.

The numbers come from Ericsson, Sensor Tower, and GSMA. They do not predict the success of a specific app. Their value is in the questions they create.

Questions for the team

Does the product work at different connection speeds? Can it explain value before a complex onboarding flow? Do we measure repeat use rather than installs alone? Is the payment model clear? Can people with affordable devices use the service?

A strong strategy does not copy the entire market. It defines a specific audience, one core journey, and a set of constraints the team can reliably control. Statistics provide context; consistent execution creates product advantage.

Sources: Ericsson Mobility Report, Sensor Tower State of Mobile, and GSMA Mobile Internet Usage Gap.

In 2025, the mobile app market highlighted an important shift: value is increasingly created not by the installation itself, but by continued use, subscriptions and the quality of a daily journey. Apps compete not only with other apps, but also for attention, trust and the willingness to pay.

What the numbers show

• According to Sensor Tower, global in-app purchase revenue reached $167 billion in 2025, up 10% year over year.
• People spent about 5.3 trillion hours in apps during the year.
• For the first time, non-gaming apps collectively surpassed games in consumer spending through in-app purchases.
• Generative AI apps recorded 148% year-over-year download growth.
• Short-form drama downloads grew by 278%, while credit and lending apps grew by 18%.

From scale to usefulness

These figures do not mean that every new product needs a subscription or an AI feature. They point to something more useful: people return to mobile services when those services solve a specific problem better than the alternatives. Monetization works when the product creates a visible result again and again.

For a development team, this shifts the focus from the number of features to the quality of the user journey. The product needs to explain its value quickly, shorten the path to the first useful outcome, treat onboarding as a product surface and measure more than installs: activation, retention, repeat use and conversion to payment all matter.

The growth of AI apps offers another signal. The advantage is not the word “AI” itself, but the way the technology is embedded in a clear scenario: search, editing, planning, learning, support or content creation. If users need a long explanation before they understand the feature, the technology has not yet become product value.

2025 also reinforces the need for discipline. A growing market does not remove acquisition costs, platform requirements, privacy expectations or the need for reliable support. A mobile product wins when it combines a simple experience, a dependable technical foundation and an honest value exchange with the user.

Source: Sensor Tower: State of Mobile 2026, 2025 data.