Large Companies Are Switching to Kotlin: The Main Trend of 2025

Large Companies Are Switching to Kotlin: The Main Trend of 2025

In 2025, the programming world witnessed a significant shift: more and more large technology and financial corporations are announcing large-scale migrations of their backend systems and mobile applications to Kotlin. The language, long perceived as an "improved alternative to Java" for Android, is now confidently taking its place in the enterprise segment. We analyze why Kotlin has become the main trend of the year and which companies have already bet on it.

Why Kotlin?

Interest in Kotlin is driven not by fashion, but by concrete business advantages. Key factors include:

• Code safety — zero-cost abstractions and a strict type system significantly reduce the number of errors in production.
• Java compatibility — companies can migrate gradually without rewriting millions of lines of legacy code in one day.
• Performance — compilation to JVM bytecode and support for native platforms (via Kotlin/Native) make the language versatile.
• Conciseness and readability — compared to Java, Kotlin code is on average 30-40% shorter, speeding up development and maintenance.

Who Has Already Switched in 2025?

The list of companies that have announced a full or partial transition to Kotlin in recent months is impressive:

• Google — internal services for the cloud platform and Firebase are increasingly being written in Kotlin. The company has officially recommended Kotlin as the primary language for Android development since 2017, but in 2025, the focus is already on the server side.
• JetBrains — the creators of the language, of course, use Kotlin for all their products. In 2025, they introduced a new framework for microservices in Kotlin, which is already being tested by major banks.
• Gradle — the build system announced it is rewriting its key modules from Java to Kotlin to improve performance and configuration readability.
• Sber and Tinkoff — Russian financial giants are actively migrating backend microservices to Kotlin, noting a 25% reduction in incidents compared to Java counterparts.

What Does This Mean for Developers?

The 2025 trend opens up new opportunities for specialists. Demand for Kotlin developers has grown by 60% compared to 2024. At the same time, the language remains easy to learn, especially for those familiar with Java or Python. It is recommended to pay attention to:

• Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) — a technology for writing shared logic for iOS, Android, and the web.
• Ktor — an asynchronous framework for server-side development.
• Coroutines — a powerful tool for working with asynchrony, which has already become an industry standard.

Forecast for the Near Future

Analysts agree: by the end of 2026, Kotlin could enter the top 5 languages in popularity in the corporate environment. Given the support from Google, JetBrains, and the growing community, this scenario looks quite realistic. If your company hasn't considered Kotlin yet, perhaps it's time to take a closer look.

<