Vasily Salomatov Interviewed by ABI Research
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Recently AppsGeyser Co-Founder Vasily Salomatov was interviewed by a senior analyst at ABI Research on the subject of app creation.
Since his interview highlights a lot of the things that we feel AppsGeyser developers need to know, we’re sharing it here.
Overview:
AppsGeyser has over 100.000 apps made in 200 different countries. Our top app categories are entertainment, TV and radio, blogs, and news.
Q: What are the key lessons your company has learned about launching and marketing a mobile app?
A: Basically what our company has succeeded with is that we have analyzed the ‘long tail’ of apps. We’ve examined the whole process, all the way from app creation to acquiring a stable, loyal audience.
We’ve discovered several patterns:
- App ‘crowding’ is an issue in US and UK markets. It is really hard to get beyond app noise, but we’ve devised a strategy to get around this. We call it casting a net. Basically, you launch multiple apps that cross-promote each other.
- With the high volume of apps in the US and UK markets, regional markets are a crucial part of any app marketing plan.
- Android is very popular in South Korea and Japan. While it’s less popular in China, because Android Market is blocked in China, it’s important to use local Chinese app stores.
Q: Based on what you’ve learned, what factors do the ranking algorithms in different app storefronts take into account?
A: According to our experience the most important factor is app ratings and the speed at which those ratings are earned. Apps that grow fast gain momentum and growth is exponential. The way to get past this is to have an app rated by your other app’s loyal audience. A good way is to boost distributions of your new app through other apps or pay-per-download resources as it gives you an initial boost and spike in ratings.
There is also a tactic that we call App Search Optimization (ASO), which is similar to SEO but in a different form. You launch multiple apps and see which one is growing fastest and then build on that growth by making all your other apps promote your single successful one.
Q: Is there an ideal timing – in terms of calendar months or weeks, weekdays, or even hours – to publish a mobile app?
A. There is no ideal timing, unless you’re launching something that is event related. For example, if you’re making a St. Valentine Day app, it would need to go live a few weeks before that event.
Some Final Notes:
- Do not wait. Launch as soon as possible! The odds of your app being on top in a given category are getting lower and lower. According to our statistics, apps launched in January 2011 had 5 % chance of getting 50000 downloads within 6 months of launch. Today, that number is less than 0.2%.
- Launch an Android version first to do ‘app search optimization’ (launch multiple apps, cross-promote, and even use pay-per-download to build initial momentum). The next stage is to build a Windows Mobile Version and acquire a loyal user base (since the competition is still building, it’s easier to get your foot in the door with Windows Mobile.) and then, finally, launch on iPhone using all the knowledge and popularity you’ve gained from other platforms.
We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter,
If you’re interested in making your own Android apps, start creating apps here.
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