App Revenues In The UK Increase Dramatically

The revenue generated from apps in the UK is growing faster than downloads, Warc reports, with consumers in possession of a smartphone or tablet looking to gain access to news and entertainment services whilst on the move. The results – which show that app revenue is growing six times faster than downloads – comes from a report conducted by App Annie, an app measurement specialist company.

The findings revealed that whilst the number of downloads had increased by 5% in 2014, the revenues generated had increased by 30%. This could be due to the rise in popularity of news industry apps; such apps are constantly introducing new methods of paying for content – whether it be from a monthly subscription fee or paying for specific articles on a one-off basis. This is proven by the fact that amongst the top ten non-gaming apps (gaming apps were the most popular downloads) in terms of generated revenues were the Guardian, Telegraph and Times apps.

Media apps are slowly gaining in popularity compared to gaming apps, as consumers use them more and more for gaining access to the news, watching videos or listening to music.

Oliver Bernard, the European Vice President of App Annie, noted that: “Media apps do particularly well in the UK as well as apps that help stream video, TV and music […] But there are starting to be more retailers using apps as well, such as Just Eat, Tesco and Adidas.”

It’s no surprise that retailers and marketers are looking to take advantage of the increasing dominance of the app industry, as other research has found that it could be worth £31 billion by 2025.