Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 793

Analytics firm, App Annie, has just published its annual The State of Mobile report. As you might expect, our phones continue to consume more of our time, attention, and money. Last year, there were over 204 billion app downloads across the world. Global mobile advertising hit $190 billion and, by the end of this year, it is forecasted to reach $240 billion. By 2023, the mobile industry is expected to contribute some $4.8 trillion to global GDP.

Compared to 2 years ago, the world is spending, on average, 35% more time on their phones. See above chart. Mobile-first countries such as Indonesia and Brazil spend even more time on mobile as they skipped over the PC era that was seen in more mature markets. But globally, all of us are doing more on our phones -- everything from managing our investments to consuming media (TikTok had an explosive 2019).

Financial app usage increased significantly last year. Above are the top "breakout finance apps" of the year. PC Financial (the financial services brand of Loblaw) saw the greatest year-over-year growth in downloads but, since it only launched last year, it was starting from a base of 0. Fintech apps, which grew even faster than traditional banking apps, demonstrate that the big banks probably need to step up their mobile game.

Young people do, of course, spend more time on mobile. Generation Z (those born between 1997 to 2012) had 60% more sessions per user in top apps than older demographics. But as of the end of last year, Generation Z is believed to have surpassed Millennials as the largest generational cohort in the world at about 32% of the population. So this wave is going to continue to come.

If you'd like to download a fully copy of App Annie's mobile report, click here . You'll need to enter your email address. But there's a lot of interesting data in the report. You can almost ignore that it's specifically about mobile and think of it as an overview of where the world is heading.

Charts: App Annie

Many of you have probably visited or seen videos of the Maeklong Railway Market in Bangkok . (I've done the latter, not the former.) It is one of the largest seafood markets in Thailand and it is literally housed on the railway's tracks. Every time a train passes through, the entire market needs to be pulled up and relocated. Even the awnings that cover the market need to be collapsed. The videos I've seen have all been taken from grade. But the below video (via Vala Afshar on Twitter ), showing the market in plan view (from what was likely a drone), is arguably even more impactful. There isn't a foot of wasted space.

https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/1218812294550949888?s=20

Few things go as well together as tacos and snowstorms. And so that's exactly what I did for lunch today given the awesome -- I love snow -- storm that we're having in Toronto this weekend. The garnish you're seeing below is grilled cactus. Dave, the owner of Playa Cabana Taqueria , grows it on location and uses it for special dishes like this one here. If you haven't been, I would highly recommend it. They're located at 21 St. Clair Avenue East.

In addition to tacos, I also spent the morning with Gabriel Fain Architects working on our upcoming laneway suite collaboration. Some of you may remember that our previous laneway project was refused at the Committee of Adjustment back in 2017 . Well now that laneway suites are permissible as-of-right, it's time to get going. We are not planning to seek any variances from what is currently allowed.

But if you're thinking about building your own laneway suite, there are still a number of issues that you might run into depending on your property. Servicing, proximity to a fire hydrant, access, and trees are maybe some of the most common. I know that the city is working to resolve / streamline some of these complications, as the objective is truly to build laneway suites across the city.

As Gabriel and I work through our project this year, my plan is to write about it here on the blog. And hopefully when the project is complete, the posts will serve as a kind of guide for homeowners. These suites are really setup to be built by individual homeowners, as opposed to by developers. If you don't already email subscribe to this blog and are interested in learning more, sign up here .

In the meantime, if you have any questions about laneway suites, there are a number of experts in the city, including Gabriel Fain Architects and the folks over at Lanescape .