Jan 25, 2017 - But most of this money is earned by certain kinds of apps, and many apps make no money at all. Potential should give you a clearer picture on how much your app can earn. Of app developers earning $5,000 or more per month on their apps. With a cost of $2.49 a piece and over 500,000 downloads,.
Many new app developers and those outside of mobile development incorrectly assume that 100% of the app's cost goes to the developer. If you sell 1,000 copies of your app at $0.99 each, you'll probably earn closer to $693 than $990. So, who gets the rest of the earnings? It differs by app store. Here is how it works.
App store fees
What Streaming Music Services Pay (Updated for 2018). Apple Music, and Amazon Music — actually pay per play. CD or a download, even for older Indie albums, unless there is a rap-mord-copy.
The Google Pay API for Passes is a simple platform that lets you connect your business to millions of Android users by showcasing your loyalty programs, gift cards, and offers, boarding passes, and event tickets.
For Android apps, developer fees can range from free up to matching the Apple App Store fee of $99/year. Google Play has a one-time fee of $25.
App store fees are more important when you are starting out or if you have lower sales. As you sell more apps, the store fees become much less of an issue. The app store's take is usually based on a percentage, so the more you sell, the more they get too.
App store percentages
Many app stores get most of their income from paid apps; the stores take their share before passing the money on to the developer.
The industry standard for how much income app stores take is 30%. We can probably thank Apple for setting that as the standard - they weren't the first, but the iOS app ecosystem has been used as a model by many other players in the mobile app space.
There are app stores that differentiate themselves by paying a higher percentage to the developer; for example, I've seen developers get as high as 91% of the app's sale price from SlideME.
It's not just about getting the most from each sale — it's about getting lots of sales too. Mac high sierra torrent. Most of the app stores that pay more than 70% of the revenue to developers don't have very high traffic. While it's good to engage those app stores, you can't ignore big markets like Google Play.
So can you do about this? For the most part, take your lumps and move on. I think that paying the distribution channel 30% for their hard work to build the marketplace and bring in the customers is money well spent and significantly better than the deal you would get selling physical goods.
Google Play is the best when it comes to payouts; it pays you out just a few days after the month is over, and with apparently no minimum. Many other app markets pay about 30 days after the end of the month.
Google Wallet
The catch is some markets have payout thresholds, which means you won't see any income until you sell a certain amount. I've seen thresholds as high as $250, which is a bad deal for smaller developers.
Multiple markets
I reviewed over 40 Android app stores for my book on the Android ad networks, and I keep updating that list. If you're interested in pursuing other app markets, read my TechRepublic post on three reasons to release Android apps into multiple markets. There is a lot to be gained from pursuing multiple app stores, but one thing in common amongst all of the app stores is that every market takes a cut of your sales — this is just a cost of doing business in mobile development.
iOS apps are generally more profitable than Android apps. You can read about that on other sites. But have you ever wondered how much money iOS apps actually make per download?
We wondered the same thing. So we dug into our Store Intelligence data and took a look the revenue per download, for all iOS apps, worldwide.
Some categories, like games, are not surprising. But there are other categories that may make more than you think. If you are looking to create a new app, this data might help you pick a category that will give you the best return per download.
This data is also taken from before and after the holiday period, it is a good look at how profitable each download is during the holiday season. We all know that downloads and total revenue typically increase during December, but is each download actually more profitable?
Here is what we discovered…
All iOS Apps
We started by looking at all iOS apps worldwide, to establish an average of what iOS apps make per download. The average revenue per download is quite good, with a slight bump in December, due to the holiday season. Now let’s take a look a each individual category.
Business
It’s a little ironic, but Business apps have one of the lowest revenue per download numbers. There is a slight seasonal tendency, but it is pretty flat across the board.
Books
Book apps are slightly more profitable than Business apps, but not by much. Again, the revenue is pretty flat during the holiday season.
How Much Does Google Pay For App Downloads
Catalogs
These apps don’t make a lot of money per download. This is not surprising, given that companies usually don’t charge for the apps and users typically don’t purchase through the app.
Education
Education apps actually see a small bump in revenue in January. That is probably due to the fact that people are on break during the holidays and get back to studying after New Years. Overall, this is not a bad category to be in.
Entertainment
Now we are talking! Entertainment apps make roughly double the revenue per download, compared to the previously mentioned categories. This is definitely a category to consider if you are looking for a higher return per download.
Finance
You would think that Finance apps make a lot of money, but this is certainly not the case. The reason is that most apps are value add services for banks and other companies. So they don’t generally generate revenue and they don’t have in-app purchases.
Food and Drink
These apps are almost as bad as Finance apps. Again, people don’t do a ton of buying within the app and they are usually free.
Games
No surprises here, Games make significantly more money per download than any other category. In fact, it is the only category that makes more than $1 per download. You can see why the biggest game companies can afford to pay so much money for advertising.
Health and Fitness
It is kind of surprising to me that these apps don’t make more per download. But I guess there are a lot of free workout apps out there, so it keeps the average return low.
Lifestyle
I really didn’t know what to expect from Lifestyle apps. But the average revenue is pretty low, so you would really have to do your homework when it comes to monetizing your app.
Medical
Revenue from Medical apps is slightly better than average. This is because people are typically willing to pay a little more for these apps.
Music
Music apps are generally pretty cheap, so I didn’t expect the average revenue per download to be that high…and it’s not. But it is higher than I expected, relative to categories like Lifestyle and Finance. Castlevania symphony of the night ps1 usa iso download.
Navigation
Some Navigation apps on the top charts cost $149 or more. But that doesn’t translate into a much higher average revenue per download.
News
The return per download for news apps has been declining since October. It’s could be a seasonal thing and we wouldn’t worry about it.
Newsstand
If you aren’t going to make a game, you probably want to look at Newsstand apps. Really good revenue per download and it almost cracks the magic $1 per download mark.
Photo and Video
No surprise here. Free photo and video apps rule. Apps like Instagram usually strive to build a user base, instead of aggressively selling.
Productivity
Productivity apps help you organize your life, but they aren’t too productive when it comes to revenue per download. These apps can be fun to create, but you really have to examine how you will monetize effectively.
Reference
Reference apps don’t typically make a lot of money per download. But if you can come up with a very niche reference guide, it could do well.
Social Networking
This is a little surprising. Although the revenue per download is not high for these apps, it is higher than I would have expected.
I would have thought that apps like Facebook would bring the average way down. But as I looked through the apps on the Top Charts, it made sense. Dating apps hold up the average.
Sports
As you learned in our previous post, Sports apps get a significantly higher portion of their downloads and revenue on the weekends. But as you can see, sports apps do fairly well on a revenue per download basis.
Travel
With people traveling so often during the holidays, one might expect the return per download to be higher in November through January. Like in other categories, however, this is not the case. Again, total revenue and downloads are probably higher, but just not more profitable, per download.
Utilities
Utilities apps aren’t that profitable, but that makes sense. Download game spider man 3 cso ppsspp. Free apps tend to do better and this is a pretty crowded category.
How Much Does Google Pay Per App Download Without
Weather
Finally, we come to Weather apps. There are quite a few apps that use proprietary weather data and can therefore charge for the app. So unless you have access to this type of data, making a lot per download can be a little tough.
Conclusion
So that is what we estimate app publishers make per download, worldwide. This doesn’t mean that you can’t make a very profitable app in any category. There may also be other ways to monetize an app, outside the App Store, but this is the revenue that we can quantifiably estimate.
It just means that you have to really do your homework and find out what successful apps are doing. This is especially true in categories that typically have a low yield per download.
This data comes from our Store Intelligence product. If you would like to get the estimated downloads and revenue for your competition, schedule an Enterprise demo today.
How Much Google Pay For App Download
What surprised you in this study? Let us know in the comments below…