APP DEVELOPERS IN the EU made €17.5 billion in revenue in 2013, with that figure expected to increase to €63 billion in five years.

The research, which was carried out by the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway and GigaOM research, found that the majority of revenue came from “contract labour”.

More than €11.5 billion was spent on hiring developers to develop and support apps for services like retailing, and financial institutions. The remainder €6 billion in revenue came from in-app purchases, app sales and advertising.

Currently, there are one million app developers in the EU, with additional support and marketing staff boosting this to 1.8 million. By 2018, it’s expected that these figures will rise to 2.8 million and 4.8 million respectively.

The report found there was a significant demand for freelance app developers. Half of the enterprises that did their own in-house development used third-party developers, yet fewer than half of the independent developers surveyed said they were offering their services for hire.

However, it warns that potential problems may arise from business. While it said that increasing users’ willingness to pay for apps might be problematic, the potential for a third-party discovery platform for apps outside of iTunes and Google Play.

Also, the difficulty in attracting talent because of higher salaries being offered in the US was also a concern.

The research was part of the Eurapp project, which was sponsored by the European Commission.

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