# Appen

URL: https://aidataforsale.com/companies/appen
Publisher: AI Data For Sale (Marketing Signals Ltd)
Updated: 2026-11-10

Appen is an ASX-listed AI training data company with a global contributor network. What it does, the Google contract loss, and alternatives for buyers and sellers.

A listed AI training data company with a large crowd of contributors in hundreds of languages.

## In short

- Appen is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and runs a network of about 1 million contributors in more than 500 languages.
- The end of its Google contract was the main reason first-half 2024 revenue fell 18.4% to $113.4 million.
- It is a long-established option for multilingual collection and annotation.

## Profile

| Field | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Type | Data collection and annotation vendor |
| Listing | Australian Securities Exchange, ticker APX |
| Network | About 1 million contractors in more than 500 languages, serving over 100 companies |
| H1 2024 revenue | $113.4 million, down 18.4% year on year |
| Buys data from companies? | Primarily collects and annotates to order |

## What Appen does

Appen collects and annotates data for AI developers through a large crowd of contractors. In its first half of 2024 it reported group revenue of $113.4 million, down 18.4%, mainly because Google ended its contract. Excluding Google, revenue fell 1.5% and its China and product business grew ([Staffing Industry Analysts](https://www.staffingindustry.com/news/global-daily-news/appen-h1-operating-revenue-falls-with-google-contract-termination)).

## Where it fits

Appen's strength is breadth: many languages, many locales and the ability to recruit people to record speech or label data to a specification. That makes it relevant to [multilingual and low-resource language data](https://aidataforsale.com/data/multilingual-and-low-resource-language-data) and [speech and audio data](https://aidataforsale.com/data/speech-and-audio-data) projects.

## How it compares with a data broker

A collection vendor creates new data to order. Licensing existing data is often faster and gives more natural examples, because the data came from real work rather than a task brief. The two can complement each other: licensed data for scale, commissioned data to fill gaps.

## Things to check before you sign

- How contributors consent to the use of their voice, image or writing, and whether consent covers model training.
- Customer concentration risk: what happens to your project if the vendor loses a large client.
- Quality controls and how rework is priced.
- Where data is stored and who can access it.

## Alternatives and related companies

- [Defined.ai](https://aidataforsale.com/companies/defined-ai)
- [Scale AI](https://aidataforsale.com/companies/scale-ai)
- [Labelbox](https://aidataforsale.com/companies/labelbox)
- [Speech and audio data](https://aidataforsale.com/data/speech-and-audio-data)
- [AI Data For Sale: how our brokerage works](https://aidataforsale.com/how-it-works)

## Questions

### Why did Appen's revenue fall in 2024?

Staffing Industry Analysts reported that the termination of its Google contract was the primary driver of an 18.4% fall in first-half revenue.

## Sources

- [Staffing Industry Analysts: Appen H1 operating revenue falls with Google contract termination (August 2024)](https://www.staffingindustry.com/news/global-daily-news/appen-h1-operating-revenue-falls-with-google-contract-termination)