Citizen Developers on the Rise in 2022

Tags: beginners, career, news, computerscience
Published: 2022-02-15 17:54:37

### Why are low code tools becoming popular?
Since the year 2020,the world economy has been hit with the worst problem it has faced so far. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people around the globe lost their jobs, and making a living has never been harder in the 21st century.

In the digital online world, we were able to see the importance of a webstore, a website and most importantly, online infrastructure to maintain the day-to-day operations of the company. To maintain these processes, technically trained staff, developers, and other digitally skilled workers are very important. As of 2021, the [global software engineer shortage](https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/software-developer-shortage-us) already amounts to **40M** skilled workers worldwide. By 2030, the shortage is predicted to reach **85.2M** engineers. Сompanies worldwide risk losing **$8.4T** in revenue because of the lack of skilled technical staff. 
Such numbers have already shot the cost of hiring developers to the roof. So in case you don't know how to code , you can either burn all your capital looking for a developer, or  you could take matters into your own hands. 

This global issue gave rise to a collective solution called startup! 84,000 new businesses were registered in October in [France](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/04/09/pandemic-fuels-global-growth-of-entrepreneurship-and-startup-frenzy/?sh=61ab16637308). This is a historical 20% increase from last year. Japan recorded 10,000 new businesses bringing a 14% increase and the United Kingdom recorded 30% increase in the number of new businesses in 2021. As per the [Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)](https://reason.com/2021/12/10/entrepreneurship-is-on-the-rise-despite-covid-19/), “Despite a health catastrophe and one of the worst economic downturns in modern history, startup business activity grew in the United States last year— startups grew from 3.5 million in 2019 to 4.4 million in 2020, a 24 percent increase”. In 2021 ,healthcare startups received a total of $2 billion and fintech startups received $8 billion in [funding in India](https://m.economictimes.com/small-biz/entrepreneurship/2021-unfolding-of-the-true-potential-of-the-indian-entrepreneur/articleshow/88426355.cms) alone. These stats clearly state that citizen developers are on the rise.

The  solution to this can be developing digital solutions at speed. But not everyone can code out a software from scratch. Thus today companies have resolved to low-code platforms to help solve these issues and allow normal citizens to become developers.

[According to Forrester](https://kissflow.com/low-code/forrester-predicts-a-significant-increase-in-low-code-platform-adoption-in-2021/) low code platforms are becoming the number 1 choice for companies. By the start of 2022, such platforms will be used for 75% of application development (up 31% from 2020).

### Here is how some startups are using low code to run their business: 

1. [Ref4Me](http://www.ref4me.co.uk/)- This is a great application developed on low code platform DronaHQ , it connects Referees and Team Managers with ease. They have utilised the drag-and-drop UI creator to develop not only their website , but also internal tools and backend apps. One of their features you can check out right away is the registration website built on low code.

2. [Neo4j](https://neo4j.com/)- They use low-code in integration with their already existing codebase to ensure quick API integration with other apps. Major issues that low code solved for them were scalability and utilising existing data structures. Thus they were able to quickly build on top of existing technology and provide robust IT solutions to their team and customers.
 
3. [DoorDash](https://www.doordash.com/)-They transitioned from code to no-code when they realised the increased speed of application development, and 100s of off-the-shelf solutions that Low code provides. They have utilised cloud solutions features of low code platforms to ship not just code but deliveries also.
 
4. [Switchboard](https://switchboard.media/)- They have a user interface built using low-code platforms that helps them become a rapidly profitable SaaS business growing at an impressive rate. It helps them integrate, schedule, monitor and analyse a network of displays in no time. Various API integrations with platforms that help billing , present user statistics etc have helped them fetch all data on one single dashboard.
 
5. [FiveTeams](https://www.fiveteams.com/)- They have streamlined the entire recruitment process with no-code by building websites, CMS, hiring apps and automations. Successful integrations with many APIs helped them scale fast. Applicant tracking dashboard is the key to growth of such hiring platforms. In case you are thinking of making dashboards, give low code a shot!

Low code platforms provide a lifeline to emerging startups and small and medium businesses by tackling the two most common causes of company failure i.e.
1) Not finding appropriate markets-The more narrowly defined your niche is, the easier it will be to market to the right audience. Too many people try to start a business targeting everyone as their demographic. This doesn't work out well and can lead to poor sales or poor customer service if you are targeting the wrong market. Low code tools help create prototypes faster and generate analytics to give market insights. This in turn guides the company in the right direction.

2) Burning all the initial capital in technology developmental costs-Too many companies spend a large amount of money in the initial stages to build and maintain solutions for the day-to-day tasks. This slows down expansion. This money is better spent on market research and product testing. Low code tools help save all this money as it enables citizen developers to build IT startup tools themselves.

These 2 reasons combined account for 71% of all startup failures. 
This is why low code/no code platforms provide viable startup tools to today’s digitalising economy.
Please leave your thoughts and comments as I would love to hear what the dev community has to say about the new and developing world of low code/no code.