In brief
Business apps remain the most popular category in Hong Kong app development, at 70% of surveyed companies (up 8% from 2019), followed by e-commerce at 25%. The pandemic has made it harder to reach new overseas customers, and the industry is expected to need one to three years to break even. Talent shortage eased from 66% to 45%.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, apps have come into even wider use. According to the "Hong Kong Smartphone App Industry Survey 2020" released today (the 20th) by the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association and the Hong Kong Productivity Council, business apps remain the most popular app category in local mobile app development.
The survey was conducted between May and June this year and covered 110 Hong Kong companies and 29 Asian companies. Chairman of the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association Lo Kwok-mingsaid that, according to the 2020 survey, the business app category accounted for 70% of the surveyed companies, up 8% from 2019. The second most popular category was e-commerce at 25%, up 1% from 2019. Other app categories, including games (8%), leisure and entertainment (11%) and information platforms (21%), declined.
Regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted that local smartphone app developers and related companies were affected considerably when seeking business in overseas markets, as it has become difficult to reach new potential customers. The industry is expected to need as long as one to three years to break even.
Talent shortage eases; demand for data analytics
In addition, on the availability of talent, the share of surveyed companies that considered it their biggest operating difficulty fell sharply from 66% last year to 45% this year. The other operating difficulties, in order, were: difficulty finding new customers (62%), and development taking too long and exceeding budget and rental costs (45% each).
| Operating difficulties | Share of surveyed companies in agreement, 2020 | Change from previous year's survey (%) |
| Difficulty finding new customers | 62% | 11% |
| Talent shortage | 45% | -21% |
| Development taking too long and exceeding budget | 45% | -9% |
| Rental costs | 45% | 3% |
| Technical skills failing to keep up with trends | 35% | 2% |
He believes that the IT industry will have a substantial need in future for talent skilled in big data analytics, cross-platform app development, back-end technologies and business data analytics, in order to cope with more app development in the business app category.
Original article: https://bit.ly/35q3YLU