Worldwide App Downloads Grew 15% and Revenue Soared 40% in 2016 (venturebeat.com)

Downloads, revenue, and time spent in apps all grew by double digits during 2016, according to a report by market researcher App Annie. From a report on VentureBeat: Time spent in apps grew more than 20 percent to nearly 900 billion hours in 2016, according to the year-end report. That's just one sign that the global app economy saw healthy growth during the past year. In its year-end retrospective, App Annie said U.S. time spent in apps grew more than 25 percent. Worldwide, downloads increased 15 percent by more than 13 billion across both iOS and Google Play. The platform owners paid out nearly $89 billion in revenues to publishers from in-app ads and app store revenue, up 40 percent from the year before. That means apps generated $127 billion in revenues overall, as platform owners take about 30 percent of the revenue.

Comments

Re:Who's buying this stuff.

[The-Ixian]

I will add my anecdotal evidence to your query.

I am one of the people who will buy an app even if it is only marginally useful to me.

There are a few apps that I have paid for but no longer use. I just figure it keeps me ad free and helps support developers.

That said, as a rule, I don't buy apps that also have in-app purchases.

I also don't think I have spent more than $100 in total across all app stores (Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft). However, I have surely spent more than $100 on donate buttons for projects I use.

Re:Who's buying this stuff.

[Parker Lewis]

Answer: China. It's in the article.