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According to a recently published report, India will overtake the US as the world’s largest app developer population by 2024. The report, titled ‘The App Economy in India’, from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) revealed that as of August 2019, India had 1.6 million app economy jobs, which is 39 percent more than 1.2 million in 2016, while the US had 2.246 million app economy jobs as of April 2019, followed by the European Union, along with Switzerland and Norway, had 2.093 million app economy jobs as of July 2019.

Fuelled by a rapidly growing demand for services and content as more and more Indians go online using smartphones, the country’s app economy is poised to robust growth. The report announced on Thursday at an event organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). To predict the number of core app economy jobs, the report utilizes a multi-step process based on data from online job postings.

Then the report found that Bengaluru is leading the market in terms of app economy jobs with 362,000, followed by Delhi with 248,000, Mumbai with 137,000 and Hyderabad with 128,000, while the Pune will create 113,000 app economy jobs.

The growth of the app economy is likely to rise, as people are increasingly using mobile apps as their interface to their home, cars, schools, and healthcare providers, the IAMAI said. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) will ensure the need for more highly functional and advanced apps, portraying a vital role in interacting with the digital environment. India is already one of the leading countries for mobile app usage, contributing over 500 million smartphone users, the association added.

In July 2017, a study from policy think tanks, ICRIER and Broadband India Forum, noted that during 2015-16, a 17% growth in total internet traffic in India contributed to an increase of Rs 7 lakh crore in the GDP, of which at least Rs 1.36 lakh crore ($20.4 billion) was due to Internet-based app services.

That time these organizations estimated that the internet economy could contribute more than $537.4 billion to the GDP by 2020, of which a minimum of $70.9 billion (Rs 18.28 lakh crore) could be attributed to apps.

As part of the latest research report, the Progressive Policy Institute anticipates the fast-growing demand for new generation apps to perform as the human interface for increasingly-digitized physical industries. Companies will need internal apps for their workers, and external apps for their suppliers and customers.