According to an independent survey relayed by Apple, small French developers are those who generate the most revenue for their applications in a panel of countries studied.
Small French application developers, stars of the App Store. This is the conclusion of the independent study carried out by the firm Analysis Group and relayed by the apple brand at the end of last week. This study, which initially tended to show the progression of income generated by small developers – achieving less than 1 million dollars in turnover or between 1,000 and 1 million s -, above all reveals the good figures for France in matter.
Between 2020 and 2022, these have thus increased by 122%, according to Analysis Group data. This is the best performance among the countries studied and above all twice as much as the European average, which peaks at 64%. Above all, this is the second year in a row where the tricolors are at the top of the rankings, witness to the good vitality of developers in the country.
Small French developers, star of the App Store Analysis Group
The other lesson is the continued growth in revenue earned by these small developers, who now represent 90% of the application volume on the App Store. In terms of growth, the latter are doing much better than the “fat” developers, which is not surprising since they are starting from further afield. “Total revenue for small developers active on the App Store in 2020 increased by 71% in 2022, proving they are resilient to tough global economic conditions”, explain the authors Juliette Caminade and Jonathan Borck. The time is, in fact, for a slowdown after the explosion of uses in the wake of Covid and confinement. Between 2019 and 2021, these same revenues had grown by 113%.
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Far from abandoning the platform, Analysis Group finally notes that developers continue to rush to it. The reasons are multiple: there is already the very large global footprint of the group and its App Store. It is present in 40 languages, 175 countries, and installed by default on 2 billion active devices worldwide. What make many developers salivate. With its programs “App Store Small Business Program”, “Apple Entrepreneur Camp”, “App Accelerators”, “App Store Foundations Program”, and “Apple Developer Academies”, the American giant is also multiplying initiatives to bring out new players. At the end of 2020, finally, Apple had lowered the commissions levied on these small developers to 15%, against 30%.
A duopoly with Google
The publication of this study, witness to the good resilience of its ecosystem of developers, owes nothing to chance. If Apple and Google are today in a situation of duopoly on the application store market, the two firms are not exempt from criticism regarding their practices with developers. Some of its practices are also the subject of ongoing investigations by the antitrust authorities, whether in Europe or the United States.
Competition could also manifest itself more frankly in the future. A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced its intention to go on the offensive in this sector with the creation of an online mobile application store. This would be available on both Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) operating systems and could see the light of day by 2024.
Lastly, regulation could also encourage the emergence of competition. The Digital Market Act (DMA), ped several months ago at European level, should allow users of an iPhone, for example, to applications for their phone from application stores other than the App Store. .
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The application store has become over the years an essential cash machine for the group. The Cupertino company, which paid no less than 60 billion dollars to its developers in 2022 (320 billion since the creation of the App Store), takes a commission ranging from 15% to 30% on each transaction carried out by the latter. . And thus earns several billion each year.
Apple’s “services” division, where the App Store is nestled in the company of Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple TV + or Apple Arcade, however, is seeing its growth slow down significantly. In the first quarter of 2023, revenues grew by 5% year on year, to 20.9 billion dollars, against 17.2% growth between 2021 and 2022 over the same period.