Study: How Much Revenue Are Apps Making From Their Users?

In this Marketing Report:

• Finance Apps Earnings
• Lifestyle (Shopping and Health) Apps Earnings
• Entertainment Apps Earnings
• Social Apps Earnings
• Collaborative & Educational Apps Earnings
• Recreational (Gaming and Dating) Apps Earnings
• Convenience (Delivery and Travel) Apps Earnings
• All Apps’ Revenue per User
• Conclusion
• Methodology

In 2022, popular dating app, Tinder, reportedly made 1.65 billion dollars in revenue from its customers. But how much money are these apps making per single user?

As a consumer, you may not consider the amount of money that apps are profiting from you and millions of others, particularly if you’re using an app that you enjoy using. 

We have observed that food delivery apps such as Just Eat have forked out millions of dollars for their TV advertisements, collaborating with celebrities to promote their brand, and pull in new customers. Facebook advertising has also become a key player when it comes to generating revenue and sales.

We want to explore revenue made by apps and look at user details on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to find out how much, on average, each app is making per user.

By exploring different sectors we will look into which food delivery, music, social, and finance apps have gained the most revenue from users.

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Finance Apps Making the Most Revenue

The global finance app market is expected to grow to reach $2.01 billion by 2028. The market growth is the cause of rising demand for tracking investment apps from customers in emerging economies like China and India. 

While we were looking at the top finance apps making the most revenue from its users, we looked at the number of users and the app’s overall revenue, to find the total revenue made from each user on the app.

Top Finance Apps Making the Most Revenue From Users

1. FTX – Revenue per User: $850.83

The highest earning app on our list is FTX, a Bahamian cryptocurrency exchange. FTX was launched in May, 2019, and currently has a revenue of 1.2 billion. With 1.2 million users, the trading website makes an impressive $850.83 per consumer. Several countries have looked to ban or limit cryptocurrency mining and trading, including China, and U.S. residents can’t trade on FTX’s global platform, due to strict regulations for the crypto space in the country. The countries where FTX is most popular are the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Russia.

2. Binance – Revenue per User: $689.66

Binance is the second highest earning app on our list. Also a member of the crypto family, Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world, in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. Launched back in 2017, the app now has a whopping 29 million users. Binance’s approximate revenue per user is $689.66.

3. Cash App – Revenue per User: $279.66

The mobile payment service, Cash App, is the third highest earning app on our list. The service, which is available in the United States and the United Kingdom, allows users to transfer money to one another using a mobile phone app. Cash App launched back in 2013, and now has a huge 44 million users, and the app makes approximately $279.66 per user in revenue.

Lifestyle Apps Making the Most Revenue

Smartphone shopping apps are likely to become the highest earning apps, thanks to a host of technological advances making it easier for users to shop on their phones.

Health and fitness apps have also seen a huge increase in users in recent years due to the pandemic, and more people keeping fit at home. We combined health and shopping apps to see which lifestyle apps were earning the most revenue from their users.

Top Lifestyle Apps Making the Most Revenue From Users

1. Peloton – Revenue per User: $681.36

Peloton is the third highest earning app on our lifestyle list, with an overall revenue of 4.2 billion. After launching in 2012,  the pandemic became a major boom of Peloton’s business in 2020, when people who were stuck inside turned to at-home fitness. Following a huge increase in sales, Peloton currently makes, on average, $681.36 in revenue per user.

2. Wayfair –  Revenue per User: $442.19

Wayfair is one of the largest online-only home goods retailers in the world, with 31 billion active customers, and a revenue of over $13.7 billion. Many shoppers have turned to online shopping after home retail stores were shut down following the pandemic. Wayfair makes approximately $442.19 in revenue per user.

3. Shein – Revenue per User: $360.64

The China-based fashion app had over 177 million downloads in 2021, with over 43.7 million users worldwide, exceeding 10 million monthly active users in the US alone. Shein surpassed Amazon in terms of its global app downloads. Shein currently makes, on average, $360.64 in revenue per user.

Entertainment Apps Making the Most Revenue

Revenue for the entire video streaming app industry reached $72.2 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $115 billion by 2026.

Music streaming apps have come a long way since the early 2000’s when platforms like Limewire changed the way people listened to music and moved the industry towards a new way of accessing music. Now, apps like Spotify and YouTube dominate the industry in terms of their subscribers.

Top Highest Earning Entertainment Apps

1. Hulu – Revenue per User: $213.02

Hulu is the highest earning app on our entertainment list, in terms of its revenue made per user. Research in 2021 found that Hulu has an estimated total viewership of 99.7 million, factoring in users of any age who watch content on the service at least once per month. Hulu makes approximately $213.02 in revenue per user, which is considerably high considering the monthly subscription cost for Hulu’s ad-supported plan costs just $6.99 per month.

2. Netflix – Revenue per User: $130.19

Uber popular video streaming service, Netflix, is the second highest earning app on our list. Netflix offers some of the widest selection of movies and thousands of older TV shows compared to Hulu. Netflix has a huge 192 million users and makes approximately $130.19 in revenue per user.

3. Twitch – Revenue per User: $118.18

Live streaming service, Twitch, is most known for its video game live streaming. Research this year revealed that Twitch generated approximately 65.13 million dollars through in-app purchase revenues worldwide. With 22 million users worldwide, the app makes approximately $118.18 in revenue per user.

Social Apps Making the Most Revenue

Approximately 61% of the world’s population has a social media account. In 2022, the number of social media accounts is expected to surpass five billion, with the vast majority connected to Facebook.

We looked into the other social media and messenger apps in the top spot.

Top Highest Earning Social Apps

1. Facebook – Revenue per User: $40.53

Out of all of the social media and messenger apps listed, Facebook made the highest amount of revenue per user. The social networking service owned by Meta Platforms has made almost $118 billion in revenue, more than every other social media platform combined. Facebook also makes the highest revenue ($40.53) per user, and the app primarily earns revenue by selling advertising space on its social media platforms.

2. Twitter – Revenue per User: $24.65

Twitter is the second highest paid social media app on our list. Twitter has 206 million daily users worldwide, which is projected to increase to 340 million by 2024. The app was founded in 2001 and has since made over $5 billion in revenue. Twitter also makes $24.65 in revenue per user.

3. Instagram – Revenue per User: $22.43

Instagram is the third highest paid social media app in terms of user revenue, with 2.1 billion active monthly users and an estimated revenue of $48 billion. Since its founding in October 2010, the app has increasingly become one of the most popular social media platforms, allowing users to share photos and videos with friends. The app makes approximately $22.43 in revenue per user.

Collaborative & Educations Apps Making the Most Revenue

Working from home has become the new norm, and the effects of the pandemic have encouraged people to access online learning.

Language apps like Duolingo have seen a huge increase in users, with its daily active users increasing by 3% in 2021, from 8.8 million to 9.1 million. With a switch in people working from home, video conferencing apps like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have seen a surge in active users.

Top Highest Earning Collaborative & Educational Apps

1. Slack – Revenue per User: $75.17

Slack is where more work happens every day, all over the world, and with 12 million daily active users, this app is increasingly becoming one of the most popular communication apps. Launched in 2013, this app has made $902 in revenue since its creation. Slack makes approximately $75.17 in revenue per user.

2. Microsoft Teams – Revenue per User: $25.19

Closely followed behind Slack for its highest revenue per user, is business communication app, Teams, developed by Microsoft. Its primary competition is Slack, offering workspace chat and videoconferencing, file storage, and application integration. Teams is by far the most popular workplace communication application, with 270 million daily users. Microsoft Teams makes approximately $25.19 in revenue per user. 

3. Babbel – Revenue per User: $17.00

Popular language learning app Babbel has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its success rate, bringing learners’ proficiency to novice level, and the app offers 14 languages to choose to learn. Babbel has approximately 10 million active daily users and makes a revenue of $17 per user.

Recreational Apps Making the Most Revenue

The effects of the pandemic and countless lockdowns had a serious impact on people across the globe, causing young people, in particular, to feel isolated and bored.

Gaming apps saw a huge surge in downloads as people chose to spend their free time playing uplifting games. As well as this, loneliness became a serious cause for concern, and many people had to find new ways of meeting people, so singles turned to online dating.

Top Highest Earning Gaming Apps

1. PUBG Mobile – Revenue per User: $67.37

PUBG Mobile makes the highest revenue per user in our recreational apps category. It is a free-to-play battle royale video game developed by LightSpeed & Quantum Studio, and the game has 30 million daily active users. 

India’s ban of PUBG Mobile sunk the game’s daily active users by more than half, although the game application has made over $2 million in revenue since its launching in 2018. PUBG Mobile makes approximately $67.37 in revenue per user.

2. Roblox – Revenue per User: $38.38

Roblox is the second highest earning gaming app for its revenue per user, with 50 million daily users worldwide. In 2021, research revealed that Roblox ​​was the most popular game with 5 to 12-year-olds in the US, and by the end of 2021, the app gained 31% year-on-year growth. Roblox makes approximately $38.38 in revenue per user.

3. Tinder – Revenue per User: $22.00

Tinder is the highest earning dating app for its revenue per user. Online dating remains a favourite way to meet people, with 75 million daily active users. In 2021, Tinder recorded more than 65 billion matches worldwide. Tinder makes approximately $22 in revenue per user.

Slack is where more work happens every day, all over the world, and with 12 million daily active users, this app is increasingly becoming one of the most popular communication apps. Launched in 2013, this app has made $902 in revenue since its creation. Slack makes approximately $75.17 in revenue per user.

Convenience Apps Making the Most Revenue

The convenience of food delivery apps has wiped out the need to go out and pick up a takeaway, and apps like Uber Eats and Deliveroo have paved the way for an evolution in how we consume products and buy food.

Global sessions of food delivery apps skyrocketed 88% in 2020 compared to 2019. Ridesharing apps have become a revelation and a great alternative to public transport when you’re in a hurry. Apps like Uber have seen a surge in customers in recent years.

Top Highest Earning Convenience Apps

1. GoPuff – Revenue per User: $384.62

American consumer goods and food delivery company GoPuff is the highest earning app for food delivery, in terms of revenue gained per user. Thanks to its lightning-fast delivery time, GoPuff is now one of the biggest on-demand delivery startups in the United States. GoPuff generated revenue of approximately $1 billion in 2021, and makes $384.62 in revenue per user.

2. Getir – Revenue per User: $285.71

Turkish start-up Getir was founded in 2015, and has since gained 3.5 million daily active users. Through its mobile app, it offers on-demand delivery services for grocery items and a courier service for restaurant food deliveries. Getir makes approximately $285.71 in revenue per user.

3. Deliveroo – Revenue per User: $260.00

Closely following behind Getir for the second highest revenue per user, is British online food delivery company, Deliveroo. Since its start-up in 2015, Deliveroo has gained over $2 billion in revenue from its delivery services. Deliveroo makes approximately $260 in revenue per user.

Methodology

We started by collecting data from Business of Apps’ App Data to collect the latest download, usage, user and demographic data and statistics for apps, influencers and social media. This data is accurate as of 12/09/2022. 

We then calculated the app’s total revenue per user by looking at the number of users and the app’s overall revenue to calculate the total revenue per single user of the app.

The apps which did not have revenue data available were removed from our list. This data is accurate as of 12/09/2022. 

We divided the categories by grouping similar sectors together, such as social media apps with messenger apps.

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