The application stores, depending on the ecosystem to which it is associated, is the only way to download applications, either for free or by purchasing them. If we talk about mobile ecosystems, while in Apple the only way to download applications is through the App Store, in Android we have more alternatives besides the Play Store.
But of course, most users use the Play Store to download and buy applications. Google has announced that the Play Store has paid developers about $ 80.000 billion since its official launch within the Android ecosystem, in 2012 (previously called Android Market).
Today, @sundarpichai shared that developers around the world (excl. China) have earned more than $ 80 billion to date on @googleplay. Our platform can't succeed without the help of our developer ecosystem, so a huge thank you for all you do!
- Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) February 4, 2020
Google published this figure through the Twitter account of the company's senior vice president, Hiroshi Lockeimer, shortly after publishing the financial results for the last quarter of 2019. Although this figure it's really impressive and can encourage a lot of people to get into the world of app building, Apple's platform is much more profitable, at least it seems so initially.
During WWDC 2018, the developer conference that Apple holds every year and where it presents the news that will come from the next version of all its operating systems, Apple announced that it had exceeded $ 100.000 billion in revenue for developers. Of course, we must bear in mind that the App Store was created in 2008, 4 years before the Play Store.
Google works closely with developers to incentivize the creation of cool apps and games, just like Apple does. It would be interesting know which developers have made the most money through the Play Store, obviously eliminating the biggest who will be the ones who earn the most money every year. Actually the Play Store is available in more than 139 countries, which does not include China, the country where the Apple App Store is available.