Mobile markets are frequently described as ecosystems (Binns et al., 2018; Lai & Flensburg, 2020; Vallina-Rodriguez et al., 2016) where powerful companies generate value from continuously mining and distributing data. In this paper, we advance the ecological metaphor (Innis, 1949; Scolari, 2012) through both theoretical conceptualisations and empirical explorations of the contemporary app ecosystem. We thereby contribute to the emergent field of app studies (Dieter et al., 2019; Gerlitz et al., 2019) by critically scrutinising the political economy (Mosco, 2009) of mobile communication (Lai & Flensburg, 2021).