• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 24, 2023

Analytics remains the most popular technology category, judging by The CDP Report 2023, a study released Tuesday by Twilio Segment. But privacy compliance may be outpacing it. 

Twilio Segment processed 24.4% user deletion requests in 2022 -- a 69% increase over 2021.  

It is not clear whether this growth is due to new clients coming on board, or whether it reflects increased efforts to comply with GDPR, CCPA and other privacy regulations. But it does show that “consumers are asking for more transparency and respect for their personal data,” the study states.  

Among the destinations on the Twilio Segment platform, analytics leads. But data warehouses have taken second place. Advertising is third, while heatmaps come in fourth and raw data fifth. Email marketing is sixth. 

The company reports that 53% now use Segment to access their data warehouses. 

One limitation of this report is that it is based solely on the activities of Twilio Segment customers. But it could well be indicative of trends.

That said, the most popular apps on the platform include: 

• Google Analytics — 67% 
• Mixpanel — 51% 
• Facebook Pixel — 41% 
• Amplitude — 37% 
• Intercom — 37% 
• HubSpot — 36% 
• Google Tag — 35%
• HotJar — 22% 
• BigQuery — 28% 
• FullStory — 19% 

Despite its top ranking, Google Analytics has suffered a YoY decline of 5%. Facebook Pixel has fallen by 3%.

One contributing to the Google falloff is the firm’s recent announcement that Google Analytics will sunset by July 2023.  

“The replacement, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), promises to capture more advanced analytics but comes with a steep price — re-implementing analytics across your current tech stack,” the study notes. 

In email, Customer.io has edged out Mailchimp as the leading tool. The two firms battled it out in 2022, but Customer.io has moved ahead, according to the study.

Competing between third and fourth place are Braze and Iterable. 

Meanwhile, the fastest-growing apps on the Twilio Segment platform are: 

• June — 83%
• Algolia — 66% 
• Profitwell — 49% 
• Vitally — 45%
• Snowflake — 45% 
• Klaviyo — 48% 
• Smartlook — 37%
• Google Ads — 37%
• Pendo — 31% 
• Facebook — 29%

The takeaway? “The debate is no longer between the specialized capabilities of a point solution vs. the simplicity of a consolidated platform,” the study concludes. “You can have both.” 

According to the study, the data is sourced from the anonymized, aggregated usage behavior of Twilio Segment’s customers, during the period of 11/01/2021 to 11/01/2022. 

The only tools included are those with active integrations in the Twilio Segment catalog as of 11/01/2022. Categories must have that category tag. 

The company adds: “The data is based on the number of customers using each destination/source, rather than the number of workspaces. In some cases, a customer may have multiple Twilio Segment workspaces.