On November 23, according to foreign media reports, the latest data released by the smart platform of sensor tower store, a market research institution, showed that in the third quarter of 2019, the global application download volume reached 29.6 billion times, among which the best performing 1% of the publishers accounted for 80% of the total download volume, and the remaining 99% accounted for only the remaining 20%, about 6 billion times.
In 2018, Apple's app store and Google play provided more than 3.4 million apps worldwide, up 65% from 2.2 million in 2014. Over the same period, however, the percentage of apps that downloaded at least 1000 times fell, from 30% in 2014 to 26% in 2018. In other words, in the growing application market, most publishers are competing with publishers who control 80% of new users' access, and it is more important than ever to stand out in the competition.
The best performing 1% of issuers earned $20.5 billion, while the remaining 99% earned $1.5 billion in total
When we analyzed the revenue, we found that the gap was further widened: of the total revenue of $22 billion generated in the third quarter of 2019, 1526 publishers ranked in the top 1% had revenue of $20.5 billion. At the same time, the remaining 99% (151056) issuers have a total revenue of US $1.5 billion, accounting for only about 7% of the total revenue. This means that the average revenue per publisher in the third quarter was just over $9900.
Top performing 1% app publishers' share of revenue and downloads over the past few years
When measured according to the above indicators, we found that the gap between the top 1% app publishers and the other 99% is very obvious, but the lack of differences in revenue and download figures over the years also illustrates the problem. From the third quarter of 2014, the top 1% of APP publishers fluctuated little in terms of revenue and share of downloads. This means that if this trend remains unchanged, the vast majority of publishers will continue to compete for a few new users.
With these factors in mind, in addition to paid acquisitions, publishers will need to continue to improve the organic discoverability of their applications. This can be achieved through continuous optimization of Apple's app store and with the help of platforms such as app intelligence. As the number of apps available in Apple's and Google's stores continues to grow, creating an almost endless pool of potential, we would like to see how these trends in popularity, discoverability and market share evolve over time. (reviewed by Tencent technology / Jinlu)