Apple developers grow App Store ecosystem billings and sales by 24 percent in 2020

For a subset of developers on the App Store, acquisitions and public offerings have blazed trails, enabling them to grow their businesses even further. In a conservative estimate for Europe and the US, the study found that more than 75 app-based companies for whom iOS apps are central to their businesses have gone public or been acquired — with a total valuation of more than $510 billion at the time of their offering or sale.

Bumble launched in 2014 with a team of less than 20 people. Fast forward seven years and Bumble Inc. has become the parent company of both its namesake, the woman-first Bumble, and dating app Badoo, which now host a combined 42 million monthly active users globally. Bumble Inc.’s February 2021 IPO raised $2.2 billion and the company says the App Store and iOS ecosystem are “inextricably linked” to its success.

“For the entire team, the IPO was a real moment of validation,” says Miles Norris, Bumble’s chief product officer. “It’s going to allow us to accelerate our growth into more markets and scale our mission, which has always been to create safe, healthy, and equitable relationships across all facets of a woman’s life. To realize that kind of change, you have to reach a lot of people, and the App Store has enabled us to do that.”

Success looks different for each app on the App Store. Apple’s goal is to provide the developers behind each and every app, regardless of size, with the tools to build a thriving business and deliver a great app experience for Apple users.

Developers in Every Country Reach Customers Around the World

The study found that the App Store enables app businesses of all sizes to reach customers across 175 countries and regions.

Versa is the developer behind Makaron, a photo and video editing app from Shanghai, China, that has been downloaded nearly 8 million times by App Store users in 173 countries and regions. Since Makaron launched in 2018, its valuation has increased 172 percent, from $55 million to $150 million in 2020, and its staff increased from 25 to 125 employees.

“The App Store has helped us connect to customers all over the world,” says Tianyi Cai, Versa’s CEO. “As a small company, we didn’t have the resources to go international by ourselves, but Apple gave us the tools we needed for expansion. For example, we would have never guessed we would be in Turkey, but the App Store’s analytics gave us a really clear sign that we needed to go there — and now people love us there.”