Germans spend almost three billion euros on apps

After significant increases in previous years, the industry association Bitkom estimates that Germans will spend on smartphone apps at three billion euros this year. The highest sales are achieved with in-app purchases.

Smartphone apps are enjoying growing popularity. As the industry association Bitkom announced on Saturday in Berlin, German smartphone users are spending more on apps than ever before this year. Bitkom forecasts a turnover of 2.9 billion.

This means that sales have almost doubled in two years. Last year, 2.3 billion euros had already been implemented, and in 2019 the Germans spent around 1.6 billion euros on smartphone apps. The information is based on calculations by the market research institute Research2guidance.

Sebastian Klöß from Bitkom attributes the significant increases since last year to the effects of the corona crisis. During this time, people spent more time with their smartphones, tried out new apps and also spent more money – “for example to stay fit with paid online courses, to pass the time with games or to learn new languages” , so the Bitkom expert.

At 74 percent, the majority of sales come from in-app purchases. These are offers that users can buy in apps that have already been installed – such as subscriptions, additional assets or other premium content. The so-called free-to-play games are also included. Here, players can usually buy additional equipment and / or characters that support their progress in the game.

In contrast, only 16 percent of sales are generated through advertisements in smartphone applications. Purely paid apps are only responsible for ten percent of sales. However, this is already a significant addition. In the year before the corona crisis, the proportion of paid apps was only three percent.

Apart from sales, Bitkom expects that 3.3 billion apps will be downloaded in Germany this year. That would correspond to an increase of 17 percent compared to the previous year. (with material from the dpa)