Python has been around for the last 31 years and has managed to become one of the most popular programming languages.

In fact, it may have previously been used by smaller companies and developers to automate various tasks, but today it is vital for tech giants whose applications we use every day.

These are exactly what we will analyze today, as well as what benefits Python offered them in building them.

 

Specifically, we will look at:

• What is Python?
• What are the benefits of Python?
• 5 Applications built with Python

 

Let's start with the basics.

What is Python?

 

Python is a high-level, object-oriented programming language with built-in data structures and dynamic properties.

These make it well suited for rapid application building, let alone if a developer is looking for an easy-to-use language.

Still, its user-friendliness, as well as the provision of libraries that allow code reuse, significantly reduce its maintenance costs.

All of the above - as well as many more - are reasons why Python is worth learning in order to build powerful applications, automate processes, and make more sense out of data. 

So it becomes clear that there are multiple benefits that are driving so many companies to build their applications with Python.

Before we look at some of these companies, let's break down these advantages.

 

What are the advantages of Python?

Although we could list many advantages, we will talk about the 3 most basic ones.

 

Advantage #1: Ease of use

Undoubtedly a key advantage of Python is its ease of use.

That is, even a novice developer can learn it easily compared to another language such as JavaScript, and that's because it has an English syntax which makes the code easy to read and learn.

Moreover, fewer lines of code are needed to execute a command, which makes it suitable for many companies.

 

Advantage #2: Accessibility

Another advantage of Python is the fact that it is accessible to everyone.

In practical terms, this means two things:

 

• It's completely free, so individuals and companies can download it to build their applications with it.
• It "runs" on all software, be it Windows, Mac or Linux.

 

Advantage #3: Portability.

When we say portability, we mean that while when we write code in languages like C++ we have to make changes if we want it to "run" on another platform, the same is not true with Python.

Instead, we only have to write the code once and it will work everywhere.

This is called Write Once Run Everywhere (WORA) and if a programming language offers it, it makes it very attractive.

So it's clear that Python is a powerful and all-around language that almost any company can use for building applications, machine learning, process automation and more. 

Let's take a look at some of these companies.

 

 5 Applications Built with Python

 

We could certainly list many applications built with Python, but we'll limit our list to 5 that you definitely know and probably use every day.

We'll start with the first application

 

App #1: Instagram

Instagram needs no special introduction.

It's the app that changed the world of digital photography and evolved into one of the most popular social networks, with over 1 billion monthly active users.

 

It even changed many of the rules of digital marketing, as it attracted thousands of companies who wanted to target their audience with ads in a variety of formats such as images, videos and stories.

This is an application with a plethora of features and a high volume of users, and Python is one of the few languages that could support something like this.

In fact, according to Hui Ding, one of Instagram's main engineers:

"We need to do the simple things first and Python allows us to do that... we had already built a lot of things with Python so we decided to continue with it as our engineers loved it. It's even a reason why a lot of people want to work for us..."

Therefore, choosing Python for such a large and powerful app like Instagram was the right choice.

If you want to learn Python too, feel free to take a look at the Python for Data Science Course we created for you.

 

       App #2: Spotify

A second application built with Python that you're definitely familiar with is Spotify.

It's the largest music streaming platform in the world, with over 400 million users and millions of songs and podcasts in its databases.

 

The company decided to go with Python because of the speed and advanced data analytics it offered.

This allows Spotify to manage features like Discover and Spotify Wrapped, where song suggestions are personalized for each user based on their history and taste.

        App #3: Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud-based file-hosting app and one of the most popular apps with over 700 million users with an unimaginable amount of data in total.

 

It is a demanding application that was ported from Python version 2.7 to version 3, in one of the largest ports ever.

Dropbox can be installed on Windows, macOS and Linux, so the portability we mentioned in advantage #3 is essential.

That is, to be able to have an application work on different software and platforms.

Let's move on to the next application built with Python.

 

Application #4: Uber

Uber is a ride-hailing app that operates in 785 cities worldwide and serves hundreds of millions of users.

These users are both passengers and drivers, so each must have a different version of the app available. That's a lot of data!

 

Luckily for Uber, Python is a language that can handle this data with ease, plus it's easy to use.

So it's an easy choice for apps that need to be fast, reliable, and rely heavily on developers to keep them running smoothly.

 

Application #5: Reddit

The 5th and final of the Python-built apps on our list is Reddit.

The online discussion site, as it could be described, has about 48 million monthly visitors who can share text, video, and photos.

 

Although the app was originally written in Common Lisp, it soon made the switch to Python as it was looking for a larger code library and more flexibility.

In short, Python met all the criteria needed to run such a demanding application as Reddit.

Let's summarize.

 

  In a nutshell.

So we've looked at some popular applications built with Python that you're likely to use, as well as some basics about the language.

What becomes clear is the fact that Python is not the most popular programming language in the world for nothing!

It can support a plethora of applications and anyone who knows it well can become sought after in the job market.

If you're interested in learning Python yourself so you can build something of your own or become a developer at a company you want to join, you can discover the Python for Data Science Course we've created especially for you!