5e457bf7b17c5789eee5b69c b2b Mobile App Market Report 2020
5e457bf7b17c5789eee5b69c b2b Mobile App Market Report 2020
12 Bugsnag
02
The State of B2B apps
Business-to-business (B2B) applications are now a hot commodity in the workplace. After years of being
dwarfed by their business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts, B2B app adoption started to surge in 2018 and
continues to demonstrate impressive growth with no signs of slowing. In fact, the demand for B2B apps
is expected to drive the market to $140 billion by 2023.01 This projected growth is supported by a global
mobile workforce that will increase to 1.88 billion during the same period.
Several factors explain the recent uptick in B2B app adoption. First and foremost is the prevalence of
mobile devices and the way consumers manage their personal lives on smartphones. With a workplace
that is increasingly filled with “digital generation” employees and tech-savvy workers, it’s no surprise that
70% of all B2B queries are expected to be on a smartphone by 2020.02
In addition, a widespread need exists for organizations to streamline their business functions, support
global operations, simplify communications, and increase employee productivity. Companies recognize
the value of providing mobile and web applications in order to keep pace with the speed of business and
compete in an increasingly global economy.
B2B apps offer the opportunity to modernize operations without significant training. Employees and
customers already know how to use apps for their personal productivity and communications, so the
learning curve is minimal or non-existent. Organizations are also realizing that real-time data collected
from B2B apps can be leveraged to improve business operations, especially when linked to existing
databases and systems. B2B apps represent another powerful way to discover data-driven insights about
clients, partners, and employees.
This report is designed to illuminate the current state of B2B apps, highlight the value-add they can
provide to organizations, and examine what makes them successful. As software vendors scramble to
develop new B2B apps in response to a burgeoning market, success hinges on creating a user-friendly app
that is thoroughly tested and delivers consistent value to businesses.
03
Apps continue to dominate the digital landscape
Globally, all types of apps are being added, downloaded, and used at exorbitant rates and are projected
to maintain a strong trajectory into the future.
Between 2016 and 2018, total app usage increased 50% to ~1,350 billion hours.
250
15.2B
200
22.8B
13.7B 30.4B
50
0
2018 2019 (proj.) 2020 (proj.) 2023 (proj.)
04
How B2B and B2C apps compare
Historically, B2B apps are rarely seen in Top 20 lists in the Google Play or iOS App Stores. The featured apps
tend to be B2C apps due to the sheer number of consumers who download them, as well as the rapid rate
of new development in this space. What’s been hidden from view for the last couple years is the rising
popularity of B2B apps.
Compared side-by-side, it’s interesting to note the differences between the two app types, as well as the
advantages and challenges of developing each.
05
How B2B apps are used
B2B apps commonly serve as a tool that are designed to deliver the same (or similar) capabilities of web or
browser-based apps. They are used primarily for four business objectives:
1. Commerce
To sell a product or service to a customer that is a business, with capabilities such as purchasing, renewals,
and payment method updates included.
2. External coordination
For business functions such as communication and project management with partners and third-party
vendors.
3. Internal management
To streamline team-based work management and communications for functions such as payroll, HR, and
project management.
4. Employee facilitation
To enable employees to perform on the job by providing tools for training, task management, document
sharing, real-time communications, etc.
Evernote (notes): Provides a note-taking Google Drive (files): Delivers synced videos,
app with sharing capabilities. photos, and documents to any device.
06
Growth in the AVER AGE NUMBER OF APPS
m-Commerce 28%
07
Where B2B apps are downloaded
B2B apps are sprouting up in numerous places, but these three locations represent the most likely ways to
discover and adopt new B2B apps.
Within 30 days, B2B purchasers return 2x faster 27% more money is spent per session in a
to a mobile app than to a mobile website. mobile app over a mobile website.08
08
What customers want B2B CUSTOMER-DESIRED APP AT TRIBUTES
from their B2B apps Want a B2C experience when purchasing for work09 80%
>90% of buyers are more likely to buy 70% of organizations are working to
again from a vendor with an outstanding provide better personalization15
mobile experience14
20% of customer’s time is saved through optimized checkout (i.e. no long forms), which
improves conversion and yields a 300% improvement over mobile websites18
09
What employees B2B EMPLOYEE-DESIRED APP AT TRIBUTES
want from B2B apps Runs consistently with few glitches 31%
10
Match workplace expectations
B2B apps offer companies numerous ways to impress customers, improve operations, and empower
employees. However, it’s important to remember that consumer expectations may drive the app
experience, but it’s business expectations that drive adoption and continued use of a B2B app.
Organizations have high standards for stability and reliability, and software errors and crashes are simply
unacceptable. That’s why it’s crucial to deliver B2B apps that are tested thoroughly, perform consistently,
and are monitored constantly to ensure that every customer, partner, or employee experience delivers on
workplace expectations.
There’s no question that the B2B app future is bright, but it’s the B2B app providers who deliver stable app
experiences at work who will continue to shine.
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Bugsnag
Bugsnag is a pioneer in application stability management. We make error monitoring actionable and
help enterprises and small businesses stabilize, prioritize, and fix bugs. As a full stack solution, we
are recognized for our best-in-class support for mobile applications. Bugsnag empowers software
development, client observability, and release management teams to make data-driven decisions on
when to build features versus fix bugs. Organizations experience significant ROI due to faster innovation
led by developer efficiencies and improved customer experiences.
Bugsnag groups issues by root-cause, sorts by business impact, and displays alongside rich diagnostic
data, which enables teams to reproduce and fix each bug. A release health dashboard and software
stability score help our customers detect broken releases immediately, know when to promote builds from
beta to production, and set company-wide stability targets.
We process over a billion crash reports every day from applications worldwide and over 5,000 industry
leading brands, including Airbnb, Slack, Pinterest, Lyft, Yelp, and Pandora, use Bugsnag as their daily
dashboard. Based in San Francisco, Bugsnag is backed by GV (Google Ventures), Benchmark Capital, and
Matrix Partners.
SOURCE S
01 “Global Mobile Enterprise Business Applications Revenue Forecast 2018-2023”. Strategy Analytics. July 27, 2018.
02 “Mobile Marketing and the New B2B Buyer”. Boston Consulting Group. September 29, 2017.
03 “App Download Usage Statistics 2019”. Business of Apps. November 19, 2019.
04 “Number of mobile app downloads worldwide from 2014 to 2023, by region.” Statista. June 2019.
05 “Businesses at work”. Okta. 2019.
06 "The Next Mobile Decade”. Adobe. February 2018.
07 “A landscape of the major SaaS app stores”. Medium. Clement Vouillon. January 2, 2019.
08 “6 reasons why you need a B2B mobile ecommerce app”. JMANGO. Marco Alewijnse. February 15, 2019.
09 “B2B Mobile Apps | Market Insights and Trends 2019”. SwiftCloud. February 22, 2019.
10 “80 Percent of B2B Buyers Expect Real-Time Interaction”. Convince&Convert. Mathew Sweezey. 2016.
11 Convince&Convert. Mathew Sweezey.
12 SwiftCloud.
13 Convince&Convert. Mathew Sweezey.
14 Boston Consulting Group.
15 SwiftCloud.
16 SwiftCloud.
17 Boston Consulting Group.
18 JMANGO. Marco Alewijnse.
19 Okta.
20 “20 Essential Enterprise Mobile Apps Statistics.” Tristate Technology. Upendra Patel. May 21, 2018.
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Balance agility with stability.