One of the hottest social media apps these days is Paris-based BeReal. Released in 2020, BeReal encourages users to share a photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings at a random time every day.
BeReal is more than a fun app: It’s also part of France’s dynamic App Economy, which is helping to drive the country’s job growth and the development of core IT skills. For example, as of May 2023, BeReal was looking to hire a QA Engineer to create automated testing for the company’s iOS and Android apps.
But the French App Economy is not just light-hearted entertainment. The Directorate General for Armaments (DGA), a directorate of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, was advertising for an “Ingénieur développeur iOS ou Android cybersécurité.” Indeed, such cybersecurity skills are essential to every part of the modern economy.
From social media to defense and health and manufacturing, and everything in between, the French App Economy includes 611,000 jobs. That’s according to the Progressive Policy Institute’s latest estimate, and it’s up 41% from our pre-pandemic 2019 estimate.
None of these jobs existed 15 years ago, when Apple first opened the App Store on July 10, 2008, in the middle of the global financial crisis. Android Market (which later became Google Play) was announced by Google shortly after. These app stores created a new route through which software developers could write programs for smartphones. These mobile applications — called “apps” — could then be distributed to the rapidly growing number of smartphone users around the world.
The jobs generated by the app stores became an important part of the recovery from the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the subsequent economic expansion, and the response to the pandemic. More than that, app development and the app stores became a key route by which young people can develop tech skills and became an integral part of the digital economy.
This report describes some important aspects of the French App Economy. We also give some examples of App Economy jobs and skills development.
