Notion Leads SaaS Peers in User Growth Despite Limited Ad Investment

Key Takeaways:

• Per Grand View Research, the market for global productivity management software was estimated at ~$60bn in 2023, up 41% vs 2020 with the figure expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.1% from 2024 to 2030. This is largely consistent with trends in ST’s productivity software app cohort, as mobile app MAUs in 2Q FY25 were up a collective average of 66% compared to 2Q FY21, excluding Notion, which saw outsized growth of 681% in this period

  • Notion’s industry-leading growth in this period was driven by rapid international expansion over the past few years into countries such as South Korea. Per ST data, Notion mobile app MAUs in South Korea in Aug’24 were up 8x vs Aug’20, driven by the company’s success in effectively translating and tailoring its platform offerings to the market

• ST data shows that Monday.com, which had the second highest levels of MAU growth out of the cohort from 2Q FY24-2Q FY25, outspent its peers on digital advertising in the US by more than 2x through 2024 YTD (Jan’24-Sep’24). Additionally, Monday.com has run 2x more creatives than its peers in the same period

• In addition to having the most MAUs out of the studied apps, Slack also boasts best-in-class user engagement and loyalty, indicating that consumers rely on the platform more than its competitors, potentially driven by it’s message-centric nature. Per ST data, Slack users spent an average of 25 mins/wk on the app in 3Q24, vs <15 mins/wk for Notion, Asana, Monday.com and Workday

  • In 3Q24, Slack’s user churn rate was ~14%, vs Workday at 30%, Notion at 31%, Asana at 38% and Monday.com at 47% , which indicates that users on these platforms churned at 2x the rate of Slack users

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