Blog - App Store Analytics & Insights

Meet App Annie at Casual Connect, Hamburg 7-9 Feb

Learn more about App Annie Intelligence from Frederic Thuard, EVP

Hello Casual Game Publishers of Europe,

Are going to be in Hamburg, Germany for one of Europe's largest gaming conferences? Then why not meet up with Frederic Thuard, EVP of App Annie? For all of your European fans who have been flooding us with emails about our new product App Annie Intelligence, this is an excellent opportunity to find out more. Frederic can show you how it works and how it can transform your app store strategy.

Frederic can also whet your appetite about our upcoming Android launch. It's coming soon, we won't say when but trust us that it'll be not too long now.

Hope to see you in Hamburg,

- The App Annie Team

It's a Whole New AppAnnie.com

We've launched a brand new website, packed full of new features!

It's finally here. In the early hours of the morning on Wednesday 11 January 2012, the brand new AppAnnie.com went live. We’re excited to announce four new features with this site:

1. NEW ANNIE: She's Got a New Look!
Yes, Annie was bugging us for a completely new look, so we gave her one. She's now a fearless data geek armed with numbers, thick glasses and shocking ginger hair.

2. NEW PRODUCT: Introducing App Annie Intelligence
Today marks the official launch of our premium market intelligence product. We're confident to say that it provides the most advanced and accurate market estimates for app stores available today. It's already an indispensable source of intelligence for many of the Top 10 iOS publishers.

3. NEW NAME FOR APP CARE: App Annie Analytics
We've decided to rename App Care. Why? Because 'App Annie Analytics' is simple and does exactly what it says on the tin. Our products are easy-to-use so our product names should be easy to understand.

4. OUT NOW: Analytics for Android Private Beta
If you're an App Annie Analytics user, you may have noticed that we have commenced our private beta. You can sign up on your Analytics dashboard right here.

Let us know what you think about the new Annie on our Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn pages!

-The App Annie Team

SNEAK PREVIEW: Annie Getting A Makeover

Because company spokespersons care about how they look too.

So whilst our product development team has been busy working on making App Annie products better and better, our graphic designer has been working on giving the website and Annie a little makeover.

A new website is on its way. And we promise there will be loads more juicy information about who we are, what we're planning for the future, our newest products and basically how we can help you be the most awesome app publishers that there ever were.

Signing off,

- The App Annie Team

Apple Goes Local In China

The scale of China's consumer base is simply daunting, but can Apple take advantage?

Most developers in mainland China actually concentrate on international markets like Japan, SE Asia as well as Western regions since they find it much easier to monetize their games here. Many of the top mobile games in Japan for example are developed by Chinese companies. So we decided to ask Chinese game publishers what they thought of this news. Most welcomed it and said they were considering diverting more resources into the Chinese market than they had previously allocated. Haining Wang, CEO of Happy Elements, a leading Chinese game developer, had this to say:

"This news is a catalyst to push us to consider the Chinese market as soon as possible. So, it probably will speed up our process to launch mobile games in China. About whether we would focus more on China, we would need to monitor market performance to make the decision."

As it stands today, China's share of iOS world free downloads currently far outweighs that of world revenues, but this gap should shrink significantly in the near term. Here's why:

Expansion of Payment Options
Although Apple's move does not include web-based payment solutions such as AliPay (similar to PayPal), using local bank cards will decrease transaction cost for many users. According to Haining, this move will convert a lot of users who currently only download free apps into paid users.
Targeting Hackers
Empowering Chinese customers to use local banks is also expected to combat their need for finding alternatives, which often results in hacking. A recent story about Apple's business in China was the use of "Black Cards", or hacked iTunes account cards that consumers buy from unlicensed third parties. Unfortunately, despite the use of local currency, "The high rate of black cards in China might last for a long time if Apple or Taobao don’t take any action against it," says Haining. Taobao has taken steps to block keywords from its search and take down illicit items, but in a country where most software can be gotten at a significant discount, or even free, it is unrealistic to think that issues like this will disappear. Over the coming months we'll monitor how Apple deals with hackers in China.
Plastic's Proliferation in the World's Largest Consumer Market
Another major factor in Apple's potential is China's ever-expanding credit card market, which Mastercard has predicted will become the largest in the world by 2020. As credit cards are more seamlessly incorporated into consumers' lives, especially if Apple's next phone is NFC capable, their revenues in China should keep surging upward.
Strong Performance of Hardware Products

A few months ago, Penn Olson included this infographic, made by Motley Fool, in a report about China's taste for Apple.

iPhone and iPad adoption in China has been remarkably strong. According to a report on China Mobile by Bloomberg, Apple is so popular that even customers who don't have 3G are buying iPhones and downloading apps.

Wait and Watch, and Count
Given Chinese consumers' taste for Apple, the new ability to link iTunes to their credit card and a widened product price range, not to mention the upcoming local release of the iPhone 4S, look for China's App Store to become a major contributor to the App Store's bottom line. We'll be tracking these stats here at App Annie and will report back on the development of China's Apple Store.

App Annie Fans, London is Calling

An industry event by app developers, for app developers
Apps World Europe 2011 aims to address the entire app ecosystem, including web apps, mobile apps and TV app stores. This year, they're offering a completely free to attend Developer Zone focused on gaming, web apps and mobile platforms. This year there will be 4000+ attendees, 100 exhibitors and 150+ speakers from companies including Virgin Media, Spotify, Rovio, BBC, Vodafone, Electronics Arts, Sky and many more - NOT TO BE MISSED. It is being hosted in London on 29-30 November 2011.

Meet Fred Thuard, App Annie EVP
Our very own Fred Thuard will be chairing Zone 2 on Day 2, 'New Platforms & Technology". If you're an app developer looking for better ways to promote your app, it's advice you'll not want to miss. And it's FREE!

When: Day Two, 30th Nov 2011 - Event Chair Welcome & Introduction at 9:40 a.m.
Where: Developer Zone 2
Price: FREE, as part of the Developer Zone

Fred can also give you a sneak preview of our premium product 'Advanced Store Stats'. If you'd like to book a meeting with Fred in London, just email us at contact@appannie.com

See you in London!

- The App Annie Team

App Annie at EBG's Mobile & Social Media Conference

Meet App Annie EVP Fred Thuard at EBG's Mobile & Social Media Conference in Paris

EBG Takes Over Paris for Their Two-Day MSM Bonanza

App Annie users of France and Europe,

If you are attending Electronic Business Group's Mobile & Social Media conference in Paris November 22-23rd, we'd love to meet you there! This high octane conference on MSM, which carries the tag-line "If you sleep, you die", will feature talks and panels for the app developer, the entrepreneur, the social media junkie and everyone in between. The conference will be held in Espace Grande Arche in Paris.

App Annie EVP Fred Thuard Will Moderate Two Panels on Day 1

We're excited to announce that Fred Thuard has been selected as a moderator for two panels. Fred will be moderating the following panels on Day 1, Tuesday Nov. 22nd:

"Economic Models for Paid Applications" at 11:55 a.m.
"Top 10 Mobile Applications that Generate Turnover" at 4:30 p.m.

Meet Fred for a Sneak Preview of our Market Intelligence Product

During the conference, Fred will also be meeting with industry professionals, and will be available to give a sneak preview of our new market intelligence product, "Advanced Store Stats". If you're in Paris during the conference and would like to meet, please email us at contact@appannie.com.

The conference will be held at Espace Grand Arche in Paris. Look forward to meeting you there!

Meet App Annie at Mobile Asia Congress

App Annie will be in Hong Kong for Mobile Asia Congress 16-17 Nov.

Dear App Annie Users,

At App Annie we love to explore and learn about the newest innovations in mobile technology and we always want to keep pace with the fastest growing markets. So naturally our calendars are marked for the Mobile Asia Congress, Hong Kong on 16-17 Nov. This two day gathering will feature senior mobile industry leaders from companies like China Mobile, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson and many more.

App Annie CEO Bertrand Schmitt will be at the conference meeting with publishers, carriers and handset makers. He will also be available to give sneak previews of "Advanced Store Stats", the powerful and accurate market intelligence data available for app stores. If you're in Hong Kong during this time and would like to meet with Bertrand, just email at contact@appannie.com. Click here for the email link.

This mobile "meeting of the minds", as the GSMA calls it, will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Hope to see you there!

The Importance of Localization in App Stores

What's the best way to penetrate foreign app stores? There's a case for localization.

If you want to maximize your app's revenue on iOS, recent data shows that you're going to have to think bigger than just the U.S. market. According to our September statistics, the U.S. accounted for just 28% of the free download market and just 34% of global revenue from iPhone apps.

One point stuck out from this slide: language. In both cases of free download and revenue share, the number two spot behind the U.S. is occupied by an East Asian country with a non-Latin writing system (China and Japan). Also, 50% of the countries within the top 10 for downloads and revenue are non-English speaking countries from Europe and East Asia. The question is, if an app publisher wishes to gain traction in these countries in terms of downloads and revenues, how important is it to localize one's apps? We'll be looking at this in more detail over the coming weeks, but we thought we'd first show you some simple statistics generated from our free web product Store Stats. The graph below shows the extent to which localized apps dominate the top 25 in Asian and European countries. We decided to investigate a little further.

North of 60% of the top 25 iPhone apps in Korea have Korean names and the other East Asian countries Japan, Taiwan and China lie between 30% and 60%. Nearly 50% of the top 25 apps in China are Chinese language apps. Clearly the propensity of users in these countries to download and to spend money within English-language apps is much lower than in other countries. And understandably. If one really wants to break into the charts for East Asian countries, you really need to think about localization of your app into their native language to increase your chances.

Is localization less important in European countries? There does seem to be a greater prevalence of English language apps in these countries where the standard of English language understanding is much higher and where the culture is much closer. The iPhone free downloads charts for France, Italy, Germany and Spain all have close to 90% penetration by English language apps. However, we've seen in other platforms such as on Facebook that companies such as Zynga and 6waves have seen major success when they launched localized versions of their app (see Cityville's launch in French, Italian, German and Spanish which was the company's most successful game launch ever). The console games industry has been localizing games for decades with great commercial success. Many of these companies have also started localizing for iOS and expect to see the percentage of local language apps dominating national app store charts increase over the next year.

We speak to many app publishers globally, and the appetite to localize one's apps is strong indeed. When you weigh the cost-benefit ratio, you have to consider the incremental downloads and revenue you can gain from strategies like this. The preliminary evidence so far indicates that localization will go a long way to expanding your download and revenue funnel internationally. Expect to see more data insights from us in this area.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to keeping you in the know.

-App Annie

iOS Games Now Available in Korea!

South Korean now allows games in their iOS App Store, and we already have the data to prove it!

The Games Ratings Board (GRB), the South Korean governmental body that rates video and computer games based on their content, has repealed their long-time ban on games from the iOS App Store. For Korean game developers, whose games have been barred from the iTunes App store in South Korea, they can now head to our rankings page to see how they're doing on the homefront! There's speculation in the news that this decision is related to the upcoming release of the iPhone 4S in Korea next week. Whatever the reason, we're happy that we can now provide all of our users with a whole new area of market data.

Click here to see the current Store Stats for Korea in the games category:

http://www.appannie.com/top/iphone/korea/games/

Come Hear CEO Bertrand Schmitt Give a Keynote at CSDN Mobile Dev Con!

Come See Bertrand Schmitt's Keynote Address:
"Cracking the App Store: International Marketing Strategies for the New App World"

Dear App Annie users of China,

The speed of mobile growth in China is lightning fast, and as one of the largest IT communities in China, CSDN is right in the middle of it. Their annual mobile developer conference will run Nov 3-4th at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, and if you're in the area, we'd love to see you. The event boasts an impressive agenda with over 140 talks on a wide variety of topics over just two days. Our CEO, Bertrand Schmitt has been selected as one of the keynote speakers and will be giving his talk about international app store strategies on Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm. Bertrand will also be moderating a panel on mobile games on Thursday Afternoon at 4:30 pm. Click here for more information on the conference: http://mdcc.csdn.net/en2011/index.html

VP Marketing Oliver Lo will also be at the conference and would love to chat with you about our new market intelligence product. It's called Advanced Store Stats and it offers the most accurate market intelligence data out there for iOS apps. We're very excited about it, and hope you will be too. Now, if you just want to stop by to say hello and tell us what you love about App Annie, we love smiling faces!

If you would like to directly connect with us, just click contact@appannie.com.