Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Marketplaces Matter


At TheMobileYogi, we've developed a family of yoga apps for individuals, yoga studios, and other wellness-centered organizations. By far our most popular app is Yoga-pedia - available on iOS, Windows Phone, and in two Android flavors; a Google Play version and an Amazon version. In all cases, Yoga-pedia is essentially the same, but in the case of the Google Play and the Amazon versions, they are identical.

So, given the fact that the apps look, behave and perform identically, one would expect the usage patterns to be roughly equivalent as well - but, it turns out, this is not even close to accurate. The marketplaces matter - like an exclusive restaurant versus a roadside BBQ joint - the marketplaces themselves attract different kinds of users - and those users exhibit very different types of behaviors. 

Using our analytics from PreEmptive Solutions, we have found that our typical Amazon user spends 7.8 times more time in Yoga-pedia than does his/her Google counterpart. …and because of that (even though we have fewer Amazon users) the Amazon marketplace delivers thousands of hours more “face time” – and for any app that relies on user loyalty – this is critical distinction (and one that is often obscured by simply looking at app session counts, downloads, and unique users). 

Check out the following pictograph that looks at the past few months of usage across the two marketplaces…   if you're going to work to recruit a new user - an Amazon user is a much more valuable asset (at least for Yoga-pedia).


Lessons learned

At TheMobileYogi, we understand that - as with yoga - it's not just what you do, it's how and why you do what you do. This is why we have spent so much time on "app introspection" - using analytics like in the example above - to develop a deep understanding of how to best engage and motivate our users and deliver value to our studio and business clients.

...and this is how we came to recognize the importance of being prepared to deliver our clients' yoga apps across all relevant marketplaces; iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and even Windows Phone and the new Windows 8 app marketplace (and we can work with you to organize the best strategy for your needs). It's also why we've placed so much emphasis on integrating premium content into the apps as well. Cookie cutters are great for cutting cookies, but not for connecting your business to your community. - Namaste 

No comments:

Post a Comment