A mobile app can be the place customers use a product without being the place they pay for it. That makes a store-only revenue comparison surprisingly easy to misread.
Consider a hypothetical work tool sold to companies through a website. Employees sign in on their phones, while the employer pays an invoice. A mobile-store earnings estimate could describe little of that business even if its mobile app is essential.
Draw the payment map
List the possible paths: store purchase, website checkout, business contract, advertising, affiliate arrangement, or a physical service purchased elsewhere. Do not assume every path exists. Look for publicly documented pricing and product flows, then label anything you cannot verify.
Next, separate the app from the company. One company may sell several products under one subscription. Assigning all company revenue to its mobile app would overstate the app’s standalone business.
Compare like with like
A store-based consumer utility and an enterprise companion app may have similar ratings while operating under completely different economics. Before ranking them by apparent revenue, ask what the data source includes.
This matters especially when researching a clone. Reproducing the mobile interface does not reproduce the company’s sales team, customer relationships, integrations or distribution agreements. Those may be the actual engine.
Use the missing data well
Unknown web revenue is not an excuse to invent a larger total. It is a reason to narrow your claim. You can still study the mobile experience, target customer and visible offer while keeping total revenue unresolved.
For your own app, design reporting that distinguishes payment channel from product usage. Otherwise, moving a customer from one checkout route to another can look like growth or decline when the underlying relationship has barely changed.
The practical question is not “How much money does this icon make?” It is “What business sits behind this icon, and which part of that business can I actually observe?”