Mobile apps, providing access to services ranging from health and fitness to news and entertainment, have become a windfall for one category in particular: games.

According to analysts Digi-Capital, gaming companies took home almost 75% of revenue in a global consumer app market worth US$21 billion last year.

That leaves everyone else – including categories as diverse as education, finance and lifestyle, as well as media – scrambling for the remainder, about US$5.5 billion worldwide.

All this is changing, however. Gaming’s share is set to dip below 50% of a US$74 billion consumer apps market by 2017, giving other categories more room to breathe.

a big deal

That said, apps can still be a lucrative business for non-gaming companies today.

Facebook’s US$19 billion bid for messaging service WhatsApp last year may be an outlier, but arrived on the back of a strong three-year growth trend in acquisitions across app categories.

Buyers are looking to take out possible threats, shore up strategic growth or both.

Valuations can vary widely, especially in private markets, which is perhaps unsurprising for such a young sector.

Nonetheless, the range still amazes, especially when benchmarked against revenue and profitability, observes Tim Merel, Digi-Capital’s founder and MD.

“Not all app categories are created equal in the minds of investors,” Merel said, speaking at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing earlier this year.

“Some app categories are doing very well in private and public markets because of the perception of potential future growth; others because of underlying economic performance,” he added.

“But when it comes to investors, acquirers or people trying to build app companies, some of the efficiencies in the market can work to your advantage, but can also work in the opposite direction.”

other revenue streams

The mobile app market, meanwhile, will remain a bigger business than mobile web advertising. Ad revenues from mobile sites are forecast to reach US$42 billion in 2017, from US$12 billion in 2013.

Both sectors are dwarfed by m-commerce, however. The mobile retail market will be worth US$516 billion in 2017, according to Digi-Capital's latest estimates, with more than half of sales taking place in Asia.

For the moment, most revenue from consumer apps comes from in-app purchases, a model that works especially well for games.

Nonetheless, a bigger market share for other categories reflects an increasingly diverse marketplace, where alternative business models are still taking shape and market sentiment can rapidly change.

Some categories are moving faster than others, and today’s growth companies could be tomorrow’s consolidators.

Merel has a clear message for developers. “Now is the time to invest for growth, or look to be bought.”