In today's fast-paced digital world, many companies in different industries strive to own successful apps. This is an ideal way to approach more target audiences, improve user engagement, and increase profit significantly. Especially startups, pay attention to building apps at the early stage. Many of them become well-known based on their successful apps. In this blog, we will share with you the top 10 evidence-successful app startups that begin from zero to inspire you.

The top 10 most successful app startups that begin from zero

1. Airbnb

Image source: https://www.airbnb.com/

Airbnb, Inc. Sector: Communications Industry: Booking travel Website: www.airbnb.com

Airbnb Inc. operates an online marketplace for travel information and booking services. Airbnb has become one of the most popular booking apps/websites in the world. The initial idea came from two designers Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia. Because they couldn't afford their San Francisco department rent, they came up with the idea of renting out three air mattresses in their living room. Then they created a simple site, airbedandbreakfast.com, and bought three air mattresses. Their first guests, two men, and one woman, each guest paid $80 for their service.

Airbnb allows users to book hotels, apartments, condos, or even an entire house. Recently, you also can book experiences and restaurants on Airbnb. The top features of Airbnb are profitability and international use. Renters can save money because they can pay an affordable fee. On the other hand, houseowners can earn extra income from their available property.

Airbnb is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to https://www.thezebra.com/, Airbnb has roughly 5.6 million active listings in 200 countries and regions.

2. Facebook

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Meta Platforms, Inc. Sector: Communications Industry: Media Website: https://www.facebook.com/

Facebook Inc operates as a social networking company worldwide. It was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Originally, Facebook was just an internal social networking site for Harvard students only. After moving its operations base to Palo Alto, California, Facebook received its first investment from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Some main features of Facebook are news feeds, timelines, walls, friends, groups, notifications, reactions, and comments. Facebook is free to sign up and use, allowing users to interact with each other in real time easily. They also can share pictures, music, videos, articles, and their thoughts and opinions with other groups, and communities.

Facebook is available on both web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to https://www.statista.com/, Facebook has roughly 2.89 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2021 and has become the biggest social network worldwide.

3. Instagram

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Meta Platforms, Inc. (owner) Sector: Communications Industry: Media Website: https://www.instagram.com/

Launched in October 2010, Instagram is an American online photo and video-sharing app as well as a social networking platform founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Two guys made this app in 8 weeks continuously. Initially, Kevin Systrom built an app that allowed location-aware photo and note-sharing, called Burbn. Kevin met Mike Krieger, an early Burbn user, who developed this app and renamed Instagram. In April 2012, Facebook acquired the service for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock.

Instagram offers many exciting features. For instance, Instagram live video, IGTV, shoppable tags in stories, your favorite filters, stories feature, turn existing posts into ads, push notifications for your favorite accounts, hyperlink usernames, and hashtags in your bio. Instagram allows users to edit and upload photos and short videos on their accounts. Users also can add a caption to each of their posts, and use hashtags, and location-based geotags.

Instagram is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to https://www.statista.com/, Instagram has approximately one billion monthly active users.

4. Uber

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Uber Technologies Inc Sector: Communications Industry: Transportation Website: https://www.uber.com/

Uber Technologies, Inc. provides ride-hailing services worldwide. The company builds and develops applications for road transportation, navigation, ride-sharing, and payment processing solutions. The company was founded in March 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, formerly named Uber Cab. The idea came from when both of them took part in a conference in Paris and found it difficult to find a cab. So the idea is to find cars at the right place, at the right time.

Uber offers a lot of useful features. Some Uber app features: book a ride for now or later, real-time tracking of drivers, allow others to follow rides in real-time, multiple payment options, add multiple drop-off points, driver review and rating, in-app chat or call option, save destinations. Uber is an online platform to help drivers and passengers find each other quickly and definitely.

Uber is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to Uber statistics, as of the fourth quarter of 2020, 93 million active customers use the Uber platform. Uber processed $26.61 billion in gross bookings from its ridesharing business in 2020. On average, 1.44 billion rides are completed through Uber every quarter.

5. LinkedIn

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LinkedIn Corporation Sector: Communications Industry: Media Website: https://www.linkedin.com/

LinkedIn Corporation operates a social networking website. The company allows users to post profiles of their professional expertise and accomplishments on websites. In late 2002, Reid Hoffman recruited a team of old colleagues from SocialNet and PayPal to work on a new idea. By May 2003, the LinkedIn platform was launched to build a professional networking and career development community for both job seekers and employers.

LinkedIn is to connect companies and individuals and make connections and cooperation between them. It can be regarded as the world’s largest professional network worldwide. Some outstanding features of LinkedIn: hide or export your connections, manage your skills & endorsements, create LinkedIn showcase pages, hide your identity when viewing profiles, save your searches, add media files to your profile, etc.

LinkedIn is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. LinkedIn has over 740 million users in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. LinkedIn also works with 55 million companies that want to hire talents or promote their products and services.

6. TikTok

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Tik Tok Global Sector: Communications Industry: Media Website: https://www.tiktok.com/

Launched in September 2016, TikTok known in China as Douyin, is a video-sharing platform social networking service owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance. In late 2020, following pressure from the Trump Administration, ByteDance agreed to create a new company, TikTok Global. However, ByteDance is still a majority owner having 80% of TikTok Global.

TikTok is one of the most popular short-form video entertainment apps in recent times. This platform hosts a wide range of short videos created for and consumed by users. The content is very diverse, including entertainment, education, society, beauty, fashion, personal finance, cooking, etc. The length of the videos is from 15 seconds to three minutes. Some main features of TikTok are video uploading, video editing, filters and effects, social sharing, likes and comments, notifications, and reactions. The key features are its localized content and personalized recommendations.

TikTok is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to https://wallaroomedia.com/, TikTok is available in over 150 countries and has over 1 billion users. It grew by 5x in 2020 mainly because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. By 2021, TikTok will be the second most installed non-gaming app, with 62 million installs in January 2021.

7. WhatsApp

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Meta Platforms, Inc. (owner) Sector: Communications Industry: Software Website: https://www.whatsapp.com/

WhatsApp is a messaging and calling mobile service available to users throughout the world. The platform was launched in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, two friends and colleagues from Yahoo. They're frustrated when they have so many advertisements on any page. From that, they want to build a reliable service that would not carry any advertising to users. When WhatsApp reached over 400 million active monthly users, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in February 2014.

WhatsApp allows users to send messages and make calls directly to anyone around the world for no additional fees. Numerous types of content such as photos, videos, and documents can be sent easily and quickly. Some features of WhatsApp: WhatsApp group calls, WhatsApp disappearing messages, WhatsApp payments, WhatsApp QR codes, dark mode, advanced search mode, and permanent mute option.

WhatsApp is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to https://www.thinkimpact.com/, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users and is used in over 180 countries (2021). Last year, WhatsApp reached 600 million downloads making it the most downloaded application under Facebook.

8. Twitter

Image source: https://www.dezeen.com/2023/07/24/twitter-rebrand-x-powered-ai/

Twitter Inc. Sector: Communications Industry: Media Website: https://twitter.com/

Twitter is an open service that’s home to a world of diverse people, perspectives, ideas, and information. Twitter serves the public conversation. Twitter’s origins lie in a day-long brainstorming session held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. Then Twitter was launched in March 2006.

Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read those that are publicly available - Wikipedia. Awesome Twitter features include quoting a tweet, using Twitter lists, tagging accounts in tweets, pinning a tweet to the top of your profile, and tweeting links with clickable images.

Twitter is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to Twitter and Statista, there are 396.5 million users and 206 million daily active users on Twitter. 500 million tweets are sent out per day.

9. Telegram

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Telegram FZ LLC, Telegram Messenger Inc. Sector: Communications Industry: Software Website: https://telegram.org/

Telegram was founded by two Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov in March 2013 and was originally based in Berlin. It is registered both as an American Limited Liability Company and Limited Liability Partnership in the UK.

Telegram is a cross-platform, cloud-based instant mobile and desktop messaging system. Telegram allows users to send files, videos, photos, and messages quickly. Users can create groups of up to 200,000 people, and sync to other devices seamlessly. The service offers end-to-end encrypted video calling, VoIP, file sharing, and several other features. However, the top features of Telegram are its fast speed, security, and ease of use. It always prioritizes the user's privacy more than other platforms.

Telegram is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. Telegram is the most downloaded non-gaming app globally. According to https://cybercrew.uk/, Telegram had over 500 million active monthly users in Jan 2021. The number of Telegram’s users will reach 1 billion users by 2022.

10. Zoom

Image source: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/information-systems-and-technology/articles/zoom/

Zoom Video Communications, Inc Sector: Video communications Industry: Software Website: https://zoom.us/

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. is an American communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. Founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, the company provides video call and online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform, called Zoom.

Zoom is one of the most popular cloud-based video conferencing apps. Zoom enables users to invite up to 100 people to join a video conference. This is the reason why many businesses, schools, governments, and families utilize Zoom for different activities. Offering high-quality video and audio, Zoom makes connections between individuals and organizations seamlessly and quickly. The top features of Zoom are the freemium model and the user interface made simple.

Zoom is available on the web and mobile platforms including iOS and Android. According to Zoom and The Verge, Zoom hosts about 300 million daily meeting participants worldwide (April 2020). At the end of the first quarter of 2021, Zoom reached approximately 497,000 customers with more than 10 employees.

Conclusion

The top 10 successful app startups that begin from zero or above may inspire and motivate you. No matter what industry your company is in, you become successful if you try your best. Let's consider building a useful app for users because it will help you a lot.