2018 Trends to Watch: App Ecosystems and Monetization
In-app ad revenue and Android race ahead, and MNOs strengthen billing stake
Ovum has published a series of reports identifying key market trends for 2018, and this is what we are predicting for the apps market:
- In-app advertising will overtake end-user spend next year as the app market's main revenue driver.
- Next year will also see Android overtake iOS in total app revenue (end-user and advertising spend combined).
- Carrier billing will capture a fifth of global app revenue next year, largely thanks to East Asian markets.
- At the same time, however, mobile network operators (MNOs) will be keeping an ever smaller share of carrier-billed app-store revenue.
Although advertising will, overall, become the principal source of app revenue (if non-app-store-billed transactions, such as e-commerce, are excluded), end-user spend will continue to dominate among mobile games (see below) and in the Apple App Store.
Global app revenue, end-user spend/advertising split, games vs. other apps, 2018
Source: Ovum
And this is how we envisage carrier-billed app store revenue splitting out by ecosystem:
Global app store carrier-billed revenue by ecosystem, percentage split, 2012–22
Source: Ovum
Here is a link to the Ovum website giving more details on the report: https://ovum.informa.com/resources/product-content/me0002-000798