The App Economy Will Be Worth $6 Trillion in Five Years (recode.net)

An anonymous reader shares a report: In five years, the app economy will be worth $6.3 trillion, up from $1.3 trillion last year, according to a report released today by app measurement company App Annie. What explains the growth? More people are spending more time and -- crucially -- more money in apps. While on average people aren't downloading many more apps, App Annie expects global app usership to nearly double to 6.3 billion people in the next five years while the time spent in apps will more than double. And, it expects the average app spend -- including app-store purchases, advertising spend and, most importantly, commerce -- to increase from $379 per person to $1,008 in 2021. The 800-pound -- or $6 trillion -- gorilla in the room is mobile commerce.

Comments

I still don't get it.

[jawtheshark]

I still don't get it. Most applications I use are free, and even for some I don't see a need for an "App". Most of the time the mobile-aware (or responsive design) websites work just fine. Except the m.slashdot.org thing, I could probably write 10 bug reports just by thinking of it. Luckily, you can tell it to load the desktop site. For most stuff the mobile website is just fine. I even use Facebooks mobile site, because I ditched their app it after the split of their core app and messenger. Never looked back. Works wonderfully.

How do you make money on apps? The only thing I can see, is selling your App-writing skills to a big company, which then distributes it for free to the end-user.

I also don't like the word "app". What is wrong with "application" or "program"? Those words were just fine. *sigh* Now, get off my lawn!

Re:I still don't get it.

[zifn4b]

I still don't get it. Most applications I use are free, and even for some I don't see a need for an "App". Most of the time the mobile-aware (or responsive design) websites work just fine. Except the m.slashdot.org thing, I could probably write 10 bug reports just by thinking of it. Luckily, you can tell it to load the desktop site. For most stuff the mobile website is just fine. I even use Facebooks mobile site, because I ditched their app it after the split of their core app and messenger. Never looked back. Works wonderfully.

How do you make money on apps? The only thing I can see, is selling your App-writing skills to a big company, which then distributes it for free to the end-user.

There are several ways to make money for mobile apps and games:

• - Ads, many free games/apps have banner ads, full screen ads periodically. Some games are doing things like get this temporary boost if you watch a quick 30 second ad. It's quite clever.
• - Pay 2 Win games - You'd be surprised how competitive some games are that have leader boards. Some people pour obscene amounts of money into the game just to get #1 and be like "Look at me!"
• - Many mobile apps are very cheap usually <$5, many $0.99. This leads to eh, it's only $.99 big deal, CLICK!
• - Some apps just get really popular socially and offer additional content to be purchased in the "free" version. Your friend is like "oh I have this and you don't". Since you don't have it, you buy that $.99 add-on content so you don't feel left out.

There are a lot of revenue streams you can tap into with mobile apps if you know what you're doing. They might be relatively small but if you get enough users, it adds up. If none of these sound compelling to you, you're probably not in the target demographic. :)