One thing is true, though. In its release, Apple claims that its App Store has created 627,000 jobs. Dediu contrasts this to the 374,000 jobs that Hollywood creates. (The Hollywood job creation data is older—it’s from a Congressional survey in 2011—but it also goes further back. Hollywood has created a similar number of jobs per year since 1998.)

From a sheer personnel standpoint, then, the App economy is almost certainly bigger than Hollywood. And as Dediu writes, it’s also “easier to enter,” “has wider reach,” and “is growing more rapidly.”

The iOS App Store Versus Hollywood U.S. Box Office

Horace Dediu

To me, that the American app industry may eclipse the American film industry is more interesting for what it means culturally. There’s a growing sense that the products of the sector we usually call “tech” are attaining cultural primacy—the web is the new TV.

What does this feel like? For me, it’s seeing ads for "Clash of Clans" during the Super Bowl, or the thing where cable news talks more about Twitter and Facebook than their users talk about it. It’s where BuzzFeed feels more culturally ubiquitous than MTV. It’s where Nickelodeon introduces a nightly primetime show that literally includes, as a major feature, the viewer watching child stars watching YouTube videos. It’s Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever. It’s YouTube stars interviewing the President.

Perhaps this iteration of web-iness-as-culture is only a fad, a symptom of a wider tech bubble. (It’s hard to remember where the MSN in MSNBC first came from.) But as the web slowly weaves its way throughout American culture, we’re going to see stats like this more often.

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