There are giant app success stories. Games like Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies that became household names with millions of downloads.
Angry Birds had more than 50 million downloads and 200 million minutes of gameplay a day, and it still isn’t even close to the massive numbers achieved by apps like TikTok (850 million), WhatsApp (600 million) and Telegram (256 million)
While Zoom announced that around 300 million people were using the platform every, single day in 2020. These are the stories that make app development worthwhile, but they are also rare. The most successful apps share a common thread – they’re owned by technology giants and used in business and across multiple countries and individuals. They have the advantage of scale and an established user base.
ComScore found that most mobile device users actually don’t download very many apps at all – only 7% tend to try out different apps every month. Competition is fierce, the stores are packed full of apps, and the stand out winners need grit, determination and no small amount of luck.
The MTN Business App of the Year Awards finalists have some very impressive download numbers of their own. At least 15% have achieved downloads that exceed 50, 000, 45% have achieved downloads of more than 1, 000, 20% have downloads below 1, 000, and 10% have downloads that are more than 100, 000. In fact two of the apps have been downloaded more than 500, 0000 times with one edging rapidly towards the one million mark.
These are impressive figures, particularly in light of the fact that some of the highest downloaded apps cost the least to create and were developed by self-taught entrepreneurs and hobbyists. It really underscores the potential and talent in South Africa, and the entrepreneurial spirit that has seen these individuals identify essential holes in the market.
The downloads of some of the apps that were in the lower spectrum are not a sign of a lack of customer interest, however. Many of these are still new, or they are web-based, making it difficult to quantify adoption. The overall downloads for all the apps that made it into the finals were well over two million – an impressive achievement for this cohort of developers.
