App Annie Releases Its Inaugural Mobile App Forecast

Key insights from our app economy forecast include:

• In 2016, the global mobile app market is projected to expand 24 percent to reach $51 billion in gross revenue across all app stores. By 2020, gross revenue across all app stores will exceed $101 billion globally.
• China will surpass the U.S. in terms of total revenue from app stores by the first half of 2016, having surpassed it in downloads in early 2015.
• Mature markets will see continued growth, while emerging markets like India, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey will expand the most dramatically this year and through 2020.

Every day, App Annie clients trust us to track the pulse of the app economy and the key trends shaping it. Over our company’s nearly six year history, we have built industry-leading metrics that publishers rely on to benchmark, plan, partner, acquire, manage and ultimately succeed in the app economy. From identifying trends in downloads and revenue to understanding which segments of consumers are using which apps and in what manner, App Annie delivers the critical metrics publishers need to build better app businesses.

Today, app publishers come from every industry — not just game studios and media and entertainment companies, but also banks, retailers, airlines, ride-sharing services, government agencies and so on. As publishers continue to invest in their app strategy, they have critical questions about the future: How quickly will the app economy grow and where? Which factors are driving the growth and in which categories? And how much revenue will the app market yield? Where is the app economy going next?

This year, we project the global mobile app market to expand 27% to reach $53 billion in gross revenue across all app stores1. By 2020, mobile app store revenue will exceed $100 billion globally. The combination of steady growth in many mature markets along with rapid growth in emerging markets will propel the market’s continued expansion. While large markets including the United States, Japan and China are central to overall app revenue growth, we see tremendous opportunity in fast-growing markets from India and Indonesia to Mexico and Argentina.

Through our deep data sets and industry analysis, we are working to provide our customers with a more comprehensive understanding of how successful app businesses evolve through a cycle that begins with download growth, is then followed by engagement in the app, which then drives revenue expansion for the app and the market overall.

We’re excited by the opportunity to help our customers confidently navigate these shifts. And in partnership with our clients, we look forward to expanding the depth and scope of this quantitative foundation for future app economy research.

You can access our inaugural report today to learn more about key changes impacting the app economy.

1 Gross revenue across all app stores is the consumer spend on mobile apps via stores, not net paid to publishers and is inclusive of spend across Apple’s App Store, Google Play, 3rd party Android stores, and others including Windows, Amazon, etc.

Originally published at blog.appannie.com on February 10, 2016.