The Growth of Indonesian Market Opens New Opportunities for App Developers

Recently, App Annie, a mobile app market analyzing company, has just released a report about the global app market. The report suggests that the positive growth of mobile infrastructure in Indonesia and other developing countries creates new significant opportunities for app developers to shine.

According to the report entitled “App Annie & MEF: Emerging Markets and Growth in the Global App Economy”, Indonesia, along with other developing countries like Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and India, holds an important role in the development of global mobile app market.

To understand the claim better, let’s see the below diagram. It shows that in the same period (third quarter of 2013 and 2014), there was a vast growth of app market in a number of developing countries. In total, it may even beat the growth possessed by some developed countries like China and Germany.

From the diagram, it can be easily found out that Indonesian download index is still quite low, despite the fact that its market acceleration grows significantly, nearly 1,7 times last year’s figure (the increase even beats the growth possessed by Mexico, Turkey, and India). Meanwhile, Brazil has the most significant growth.

Furthermore, the impressive growth shown by Indonesia and other developing countries has globally affected the app market’s landscape. For instance, referring to above diagram, Germany has a quite stable yet stagnant growth, nowhere near to Indonesia.

For Indonesia, number of factors may lead to this condition, and one of them is the improvement of mobile infrastructure, not to mention the implementation of 4G network which is expected to take place really soon there. At the end, this report concluded that Indonesia might be the global ‘key market’ in the near future. FYI, the index of obile app market was taken from two most popular app stores: Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Is it a positive sign for Indonesian market and entrepreneurs? Absolutely, although it may also be a big slap in the face when it comes to the fact that the report apparently regards Indonesia as a consumptive country, and not a productive one. However, it may turn to be good should local developers view it as an opportunity to improve their own competitiveness and fight in the market.

It is not something to be proud of, actually, to see Indonesia opening its market for all global players without making any exception at all while it has yet been a joyful playground for local developers. Well, hopefully this report may remind local players to take a stand in their own home.

[Header illustration: Shutterstock | Diagram: App Annie]