Alexa Apps

Amazon Alexa had a good year as a developer platform –

at least in terms of the number of voice apps being built for

Alexa, if not yet the monetization of those apps. According

to new data published today by Voicebot, the number of

Amazon Alexa skills in the U.S. more than doubled over

2018, while the number of skills grew by 233 percent and

152 percent in Alexa’s two other top markets, the U.K. and

Germany, respectively.

Amazon began the year with 25,784 Alexa skills in the U.S.,

which grew to 56,750 skills by the end of 2018, said Voicebot.

That represents 120 percent growth, which is down from the

266 percent growth seen the year prior – but still shows

continued developer interest in the Alexa platform.

At this rate of growth, that means developers were publishing

an average of around 85 skills per day in 2018.

Voicebot has its own method for tracking skill counts, so these

are not Amazon’s own numbers, we should note. However,

Amazon itself did say at year-end 2018 that its broader Alexa

ecosystem had grown to “over 70,000” total skills across

markets.