Amazon's Appstore Generates More Revenue Per Daily User Than Google Play
According to new data released today by mobile analytics firm Flurry, Amazon's Appstore for Android is generating more revenue per daily user than the Google Android Market, which was recently rebranded as the Google Play store.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is confirmation arriving on schedule: GigaOM reported in February 2012 that many developers found Amazon's Appstore more lucrative than the Android Market (more lucrative for devs than Android Market), and Flurry's new analytics now put a per-daily-user revenue number behind that claim. The timing is pointed — it lands within days of Google rebranding the Android Market as the Play store, part of an effort to unify its content strategy against Apple.
The story also travelled unusually wide for an analytics datapoint, with pickups from Flurry's own blog through GigaOM, IntoMobile, PadGadget, MacNN and The Digital Reader — a sign that the developer community is actively weighing a second Android storefront. It fits Amazon's broader March push: expanding Kindle Touch availability across five European markets while building out its software ecosystem.
First-order effects
- Developers deciding where to ship Android apps get a quantified reason to treat Amazon's Appstore as a primary channel rather than a side listing, since each daily user there generates more revenue than one on Google Play.
- Google takes a reputational hit at the exact moment it relaunched its storefront as Play: the incumbent Android store is being out-monetized per user by a first-party competitor running on its own OS.
Second-order effects
- Amazon's curation-and-merchandising model becomes the visible lever — if a smaller store monetizes better per user, Google faces pressure to match that level of editorial promotion and storefront polish rather than rely on scale alone.
- Other device makers and carriers gain an argument for preloading or backing alternative Android storefronts, since the data suggests the default store is not automatically the best monetization venue.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Android distribution fragments into competing storefronts judged on revenue per active user rather than raw installs — making metrics like revenue-per-active-device the scoreboard developers actually watch when allocating launches and exclusives.
The trend: Android app distribution is shifting from a single default store toward competing storefronts ranked by revenue per user, with Amazon positioning itself as the higher-yield alternative.