The new research from Research2Guidance, a Berlin-based market research company focused on mobile app development, included 2,400 mHealth developers and healthcare professionals, with 47 percent of responses coming from Europe and 36 percent from the U.S. Developer respondents were also new to the market, with 44 percent publishing their first app in the last three years and 67 percent in the last five years.
“This report concentrates on the financial-side of mHealth app development,” the report said. “It examines questions like: How much revenue are mHealth app publishers making, how many downloads do mHealth app portfolios get, which business models are most popular, which marketing channels are used or what are the budget requirements today to develop an mHealth app.”
Key findings include:
- Only 4 percent of mHealth app publishers top 1 million downloads for their entire portfolio. More than half (55 percent) report less than 5,000 downloads for a company’s total offerings.
- 93 percent of highly downloaded companies have been in the mHealth marketplace for more than three years.
- 83 percent of mHealth app publishers have less than 10,000 active users in a particular month. Only 7 percent report more than 50,000 active users per month.
- Partnering with health associations was the most popular marketing avenue, with 48 percent of respondents going that route. Social media (37 percent) and email (29 percent) were the second and third most popular marketing tools.
- More than half (56 percent) of developers make less than $10,000 a year with their entire mHealth portfolio, while 11 percent generates more than $1 million.
- The average mHealth app costs $425,000, which includes $200,000 in outsourced services, though a majority of developers spend less than $25,000 per app.
- The average time of development is 15 months, with 84 percent of apps launched within two years of development.
The full study from Research2Guidance is available to download for free.
Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.