From Horace Dediu:
Bigger than Hollywood
Apple paid $10 billion to developers in calendar 2014. Additional statistics for the App store are:
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- $500 million spent on iOS apps in first week of January 2015
- Billings for apps increased 50% in 2014
- Cumulative developer revenues were $25 billion (making 2014 revenues 40% of all app sales since store opened in 2008)
- 627,000 jobs created in the US
- 1.4 million iOS apps catalog is sold in 155 countries
Putting these data points together with others from previous releases results in a fairly clear picture of the iTunes/Software/Services
And:
Put another way, in 2014 iOS app developers earned more than Hollywood did from box office in the US.
Although the totals for Domestic (US) Box Office are not the complete Hollywood revenues picture, Apple’s App Store billings is not the complete App revenue picture either. The Apps economy includes Android and ads and service businesses and custom development. Including all revenues, apps are still likely to be bigger than Hollywood.
But there’s more to the story. It’s also likely that the App industry is healthier. On an individual level, some App developers earn more than Hollywood stars and I would guess that the median income of app developers is higher than the median income of actors. The app economy sustains more jobs (627,000 iOS jobs in the US vs. 374,000 in Hollywood) and is easier to enter and has wider reach. As the graph below shows It’s also growing far more rapidly.
Hollywood tends to operate in its own little bubble - they are taken completely by surprise when films like American Sniper become so popular. They need to wake up and figure out who their audience is.
Also, iOS is not the dominant platform - Google Android enjoys a 78% share globally and a 61.9% US share.
