• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, May 23, 2019

Leading up to GDPR’s one-year anniversary, agencies and analysts are asking what impact the data protection and privacy regulations have had on the mobile marketplace.

While marketers trimmed customer lists to meet new regulatory requirements for “traditional” channels (like email), mobile app audiences continue to grow, according to Airship.

Worldwide, app audiences grew by16.6% year-over-year, according to the customer engagement firm.

Businesses are also sending more notifications, which are averaging 36 per user per month -- up 18.4% year-over-year -- while the average notification opt-in rate remains high at 67% of global app users.

For its findings, Airship said it analyzed the data of approximately 700 million consumers worldwide.

While its results varied at the regional level, the general pattern of increasing use and consumer acceptance of notifications has been consistently growing, according to the firm.

Also of note, consumers are becoming more selective in sharing their location data.

Indeed, the average opt-in rate for use of location data declined from 9.3% to 7.7%, Airship found.

That said, in industries where the use of location data provides an immediate consumer benefit, opt-in rates for location-based services have increased dramatically.

Among 15 industry verticals, entertainment rose from the fourth to the second-highest average location opt-in rate.

Food & Drink entered the top five for the first time, due to rising adoption of mobile pre-order and delivery services among quick-serve restaurants.

Both of these industries, and the longtime location leader -- retail -- illustrate the willingness of users to share location data when it unlocks convenient, streamlined services.

Airship also found big differences among sub-regions, where valued location-based use cases are more established and rapidly emerging. The standout region appears to be Latin America and the Caribbean, with average location opt-in rates more than doubling.