European app market ‘can create 4.8 million jobs’

The European app market has the potential to create up to 4.8 million jobs by 2018, predicts a new report launched yesterday in Brussels by European Commission vice-president Neelie Kroes.

This mobile and web apps market has already seen EU developers earn €17.5 billion in 2013, a figure that could rise to €63 billion within the next five years. “It’s clear that coding is the new life skill,” declared Kroes.

In attendance was Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka who spoke about the challenges of creating a healthy app economy in Europe. Mr Vesterbacka spoke about how Rovio's Angry Birds had become "the biggest digital brand ever" and outlined the company's vision to teach children to code with the Angry Birds Playground education programme.

The EurApp report comes from a year-long study carried out by the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at the National University of Ireland, Galway led by Dr John Breslin in association with Gigaom Research.

“We all know there’s been a huge growth in apps but the actual revenue numbers in terms of jobs, app sales and contract development work are very encouraging,” he said.

While €6 billion of this revenue came from actual app sales, in-app spending and advertising, the bulk (€11.5 billion) came from contract labour.