Apps ... Much More Than Entertainment: job creation and developing serious apps
Mobile applications are just distractions for bored kids on long journeys, right? Wrong. Successful apps are big business and in more ways than ‘shoot ‘em up, knock ‘em down’ game developers imagine. The market for ‘serious apps’, designed to enrich or simplify daily life, is stronger than ever. It’s an opportunity for European app-makers with fresh ideas and the tenacity to bring them to market. But they may need some help.
Recent studies on the app economy in the US estimate that it was responsible for the creation of nearly 500 000 jobs. Europe is a strong player in the global app economy, with companies like Rovio (Angry Birds) and SoundCloud (see page 31) leading the way, but there is a lack of data on the extent and wider impact of Europe’s app economy.
“Around a fifth of the top-grossing apps in iOS and Android come from European publishers, so the majority are from the US,” says Mark Mulligan, an analyst with GigaOM Research. There is so much choice out there that it is getting harder for consumers to identify European apps, he suggests.
More information is essential so policy decisions reflect the genuine needs of the sector. This is where the Eurapp study, launched by the European Commission, comes in. Eurapp is putting together a comprehensive review of the size of the EU’s app economy so that it can be further supported by the Digital Agenda Europe and other initiatives. This study is part of the Startup Europe (see pages 8-9) initiative, which aims to help tech entrepreneurs start, maintain and grow their businesses in the region.
GUIDE FOR SUCCESS
Developers who create mobile applications for smartphones and social networks (see SEA-SONS case) are a unique population of skilled individuals who drive the app economy, which in turn contributes billions of euros annually to the US economy. The app market in the European Union is less mature than in the US, which is why the Commission is looking for viable ways to foster growth in this important industry.
Apps, jobs, market conditions
With the proliferation of smartphones and social networks, the EU app economy has potential to create revenue and jobs on a scale similar to that of the US. But major bottlenecks threaten to hold back that growth, including a lack of access to funding for developers and a shortage of business skills and experience at app companies.
“It can be more difficult to get the substantial funding required to sustain or grow an internationally operating app business in the EU, when compared with our counterparts in the US,” confirms Eurapp’s lead researcher John Breslin. “It may be the less risk-averse mindset in the US, or a lack of know-how in EU companies about how to promote and position one’s app in the market, or other factors.”
Regulatory and country-specific barriers - privacy laws, data access, and working in fragmented national markets - have been cited as problems affecting EU-wide market conditions.
The Eurapp project is surveying stakeholders in the app economy to determine its characteristics. It is also organising a series of workshops and ‘innovation challenges’ to crowd-source proposals for how growth can be stimulated in the future.
The study team from DERI, National University of Ireland, Galway and GigaOM Research is due to deliver innovative and pragmatic recommendations detailing the best policy mix to overcome or mitigate various bottlenecks - environmental, technical, financial - identified in the app economy, in particular in relation to job creation.
“By using our expertise in developing and managing surveys with targeted access to tech communities through social media, we will generate a high-quality database about the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of stakeholders in the app economy/ecosystem throughout Europe,” notes the team.
Eurapp is using an established crowd-sourcing platform (InnoCentive) to learn more about the app community. Over time, according to Eurapp, this network could be used for additional surveys, experimentation, and analysis of network use in order to further build our knowledge as technology evolves and new app-economy characteristics emerge.
‘Tis the season to be …
Blogs, wikis, social media, etc. are changing the face of the web ... and how organisations communicate and collaborate in- and outside their communities. For the EU, the ‘social’ side of the web is particularly interesting - it has the potential to add value beyond traditional e-commerce activities, enabling the formation of virtual customer environments.
The recently finished SEA-SONS project, led by the JRC’s Institute for Prospective Technology Studies, sought answers to the question: How do EU enterprises make use of these new communication technologies and platforms; and why would investing in social media be beneficial and attractive to small businesses?
The researchers analysed the market situation (in 2012) to identify ‘best practices’ by SMEs in terms of their social media use as part of their usual business activities. This analysis served to define a list of possible EU policy options. In a second phase of the study, they examined the adoption and use of social media collaborative platforms by some 600 SMEs and highlighted the main drivers and barriers behind more sustained and effective take-up in the EU.
More info: SEA-SONS - http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/TFS/SEA-SoNS.html
More info
Eurapp - http://eurapp.eu/
Supporting the EU app economy: addressing EU market conditions -
Challenge I: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933405
Challenge II: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933375
Additional Information
See also: net-innov future magazine
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