The Future of On-Demand Apps – Statistics and Trends [Infographic]

In case you have not paid heed to the elephant in the room, an on-demand mobile apps industry is booming and surpassing all business models. From taxi to food, from medicines to groceries, everything can be booked and delivered to you via on-demand mobile apps.

The on-demand apps have been ruling the mobile application world, with its convenience and ease of use that these on-demand apps offer. These apps are instantaneous problem solvers and offer the best possible solution to a variety of problems faced by people all over the world. These apps offer a direct interaction between the customers and the sellers. Various forms of on-demand mobile apps include online food ordering, on-demand grocery delivery, spa appointment booking, parcel delivery, housekeeping, and professional services, and so on.

Startup companies have been using on-demand apps as a major business platform, to launch their business and become popular in a very short span of time. Many start-up companies raised huge funds, using these on-demand apps, and became eminent brands in no time.

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Why do on-demand mobile apps have a bright future?

According to a report by Harvard Business, the on-demand economy is worth $57.6 billion average. It means the coming time will witness a huge growth of start-ups pertaining to the on-demand economy.

According to some experts, the on-demand economy can be a game-changer and might disrupt the traditional economic system prevailing today. Also, many businesses have understood that in order to have a competitive advantage they need to renovate the way they carry out their business.

That is why many existing business entities and upcoming start-ups are shifting towards mobile apps to flourish their business. These mobile apps provide an efficient platform to do business and act as an interface between customers and sellers of products and services.

These mobile apps are not only easy to use but they are highly adaptable to coming future technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain which will become a new normal in the coming time.

Last but not the least, mobile apps help a business entity to monetise its assets, skills, and time which improves the operating efficiency of a firm.

Types of on-demand Delivery Apps

Based on the category of buyers and users that make up the gig-economy, on-demand applications are divided into three types –

• Enterprise to Person(E2P) / Business to Consumer(B2C)
  
  E2P or B2C on-demand apps facilitate transactions of goods or services between providers and customers. In other words, a business makes money from assigning its employees to meet the needs of a consumer who pays the price for the service rendered.
  
  McDelivery, Booking.com, and Starbucks are examples of B2C apps.
  
• Enterprise to Enterprise(E2E) / Business to Business(B2B)
  
  B2B on-demand apps are mobile solutions created to connect businesses. These apps support transactions globally.
  
  Cargomatic, Eventio, and Catalant are good examples of B2B apps.
  
• Person to Person(P2P) / Consumer to Consumer(C2C)
  
  These on-demand apps serve as a platform for users to exchange products or services. Customers can sell to or buy from other customers via a C2C on-demand app.
  
  Successful platforms that use this model include BlaBlaCar, eBay, and Etsy.
  
  Some Successful On-demand Apps
  
  Although there are millions of on-demand apps roaming the market and meeting different user needs, the ones listed below are popularly used by millennials and thus, represent a large chunk of the on-demand app market share:
• UBER
• LYFT
• GRAB
• INSTACART
• OLACABS
• SWIGGY
• POSTMATES

On-demand mobile app start-ups appeal to investors.

Big players in the startup industry who are flush with capital would be willing to ride on the wave of growth that the on-demand industry has showcased over the years. The radical shift in consumer behavior is something that they would want to leverage upon.

Hence, it is only logical that they would be willing to invest millions in disrupting even more industries and focus on overseas expansion. Uber and Airbnb are examples of successful start-ups’ idea of which got adequate investment and these apps are used by most of the people.

In addition, Swiggy, a food ordering platform in India, raised over $1 billion which made it the biggest funding in India’s food-tech sector. An education-tech industry that is booming in the current crisis of COVID-19 has been leap-frogging with regard to raising capital.

For example, BYJU’s, one of the leading online learning platform in India, raised $785 million in 2019 and $200 million in February 2020. Also, According to the latest PwC report, the market for on-demand mobile apps and websites will reach a significant value of $335 billion by the year 2025.

These instances show that investors are having more and more faith in these companies since they are likely to give a better return on investment in the future.

Annual on-demand economy spending

On-demand apps are gaining extreme popularity these days and hence changing the lives of people. This trending industry reached $57 billion marks in the year 2018 and keeping in growth trends in mind, the coming years will witness a new benchmark.

Attracting more than 22.4 million consumers every year, the on-demand app industry has annual average spending as $ 57.6 billion.

Estimated on-demand market revenue

The total revenue from all on-demand sectors was $14 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach a whopping $335 billions in 2025.

Worldwide distribution of start-ups using on-demand mobile apps.

Most of the start-ups using on-demand mobile apps are in the Fintech industry followed by Life Sciences & Healthcare and Artificial Intelligence. Although the Gaming and Edu-tech industry is also gaining momentum, their growth will not be as same as the Fintech industry which is growing by leaps and bounds.

One of the important reasons for the growth of the Fintech industry is the failure of traditional banking systems worldwide which is recognized by long waiting times in service delivery and growing NPAs.

The fintech industry is giving tough competition to Banks and NBFCs and changing the rules of the game on how financial services are delivered effectively to the customers.

Do you know?

It was 2014 when the world economy started gaining momentum after absorbing a big shock from the global recession of 2008-09. This year saw a proliferation of mobile apps based start-ups.

Also, the internet was penetrating the lives of millions of people all across the world and now 34% of humans on earth are online today and that is a 566% increase from 2000. According to some experts, the internet will be driving force towards the development of mobile-enabled commerce which will yield the next $100 billion big start-ups.

Many experts have voiced their apprehension about sluggish growth of the economy in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic but some on-demand industries like e-commerce, online-education, Subscription Video on Demand(SVoD) startups are likely to remain unaffected from this pandemic which is wreaking havoc all over the world.

2020 Growth trends for the on-demand mobile app economy

The on-demand app economy is changing the way businesses serve customers. From services that help parents connect with babysitters to an on-demand auto-parts delivery service connecting auto repair shops with parts manufacturers, the proliferation of on-demand service platforms continues to remain one of the hottest new business growth trends.

In the future, we are going to see the development of more on-demand service and delivery apps, an increase in consumers in the on-demand economy, and on-demand app builders discovering new ways to meet the needs of consumers with a greater diversity of platforms.

The trends which are clear with respect to on-demand app economy are – steady growth in the number of workers entering the on-demand app economy, consumers will be adopting on-demand service apps mostly in industries like transportation, food delivery, online marketplaces, etc, there will be an increased need for background checks because the customers would be hesitant to use the service of a person if he is not verified, there will be an increase in on-demand platforms that need more highly skilled workers, especially in industries like healthcare and medicine, and there will be an increase in the demand of on-demand mobile app developers.