Inertia and path dependence (or in plain language, history). Web started on the desktop and the browser co-evolved with desktop focused web apps. Desktop as a

Inertia and path dependence (or in plain language, history). Web started on the desktop and the browser co-evolved with desktop focused web apps. Desktop as a platform is also more hostile to native apps: a lot of users don't have permissions to install native apps, and another slice of users is sufficiently clued about security that they don't want to. These probably make up >50% of your potential users. The same effects exist on mobile too, but in smaller portions.