Subscription apps like Netflix or Spotify net billions in App Store and Google Play revenue increase

What's behind that unprecedented increase in non-gaming revenues for the two most popular application stores? Well, the giant increase in music and video streaming subscriptions, of course. Both Spotify and Netflix are increasing their user bases significantly by using the App Store and Google Play as subscription vehicles, and that is why they are easily digesting Apple and Google's 30% (or 15% if you hold the subscription for a year) cut from the fee pie. Back in December, after it announced offline downloads for select shows and movies, Netflix became the top-grossing iOS app, as a harbinger of things to come.

Thus, those two media streamers currently occupy the top spots as App Store revenue generators outside of the gaming universe, followed by other subscription services like Pandora, HBO NOW, Tinder or Hulu. The Play Store differs somewhat, as Spotify is missing from the top ten there, but Pandora, Tinder and HBO NOW are still in the top five. Love it or leave it, this symbiosis proves to be a win-win-win scenario for all three parties involved - the subscription services like the unprecedented exposure they get on iPhones and Androids, the users love the subbing simplicity, while the app stores are laughing all the way to the bank.

source: Sensor Tower via Apple Insider