For a very long time, cultural barriers, piracy concerns, fragmented app distribution ecosystems and the need for localization prevented most app developers from testing this market.  The common perception that Chinese app users may not be willing to pay for content and that app usage levels may not be high enough to warrant investments in heavy marketing kept most developers at bay in China.

InMobi’s recently concluded developer research reveals that app usage and download behavior in China is now comparable to that in the US and in fact, on several counts, fares better.

Willingness to pay for content

Contrary to the popular belief that Chinese users are unwilling to pay for content,46% of users surveyed in China confessed to have made in-app purchases, higher than the same statistic observed in the US (37%)

Another insight that corroborates the argument that Chinese app developers are not as price sensitive as perceived to be, is that only 37% of users surveyed in China claimed to be influenced by price while making a download decision. On the other hand, 61% of users in the US quoted price as a key influencer in driving their decision to download apps.

App download and usage behavior:

The research also shows that the appetite for exploring new apps is high amongst the Chinese. A whopping 97% of smartphone users in China revealed that they proactively search for new apps to download, with 37% of them searching on a daily basis. While these numbers are comparable in the US, they are actually a tad lower- 91% and 24% respectively.

App download and usage patterns revealed by this survey suggest that in both the US and in China, users not only download a lot of apps but also use them heavily. While 86% of all users in the US said that they have downloaded at least one app in the last one month, 93% of users in China downloaded an app during the same period. App usage statistics for china are also a tad higher than in the US, as is evident from the data below.

Influence of Mobile ads

The increasing propensity for users globally to react positively to context sensitive content promotion is evident amongst Chinese users as well. In both China and the US, users preferred ads that were context- aware and those that recommended specific apps based on their current content consumption and preferences.  Also, rich media ads were by far preferred more to simple banner ads, suggesting that users like to engage with ads that have richer content.

To conclude, developers can no longer afford to ignore the limitless potential of the Chinese app market. Sure, there are several challenges to succeed in this country. However, given the huge smartphone user base, grabbing even a small share of the available pie can help developers boost their app business significantly.   Watch this space for more as we share insights and strategies to succeed in this unique market.

As you may have already guessed, there is indeed no silver bullet to resolve  this challenge and there never will be. Appstore dynamics change every day and the right approach is somewhere in the middle. Using the right mix of paid marketing channels, social marketing, direct mailers, SEO and PR – all contribute towards a successful launch.  While there are a few developers such as WeChat that opted for the traditional media route  to launch their app successfully, it is often  an  expensive and risky  approach to adopt at the time of launch. For most app developers, it’s advisable to test the waters first and launch the app on the big screen only after stress testing it for a few weeks!

So, how should  app developers measure the success of their launch marketing strategy? The most important metric is indeed the appstore rank. As an app marketer, you should measure the efficacy of each marketing channel by measuring its correlation to the appstore ranking. The efficacy of each channel can change with the category of your app (gaming, social, business etc), competition in the appstore and the timing of the launch. Needless to say, it is a continuous learning exercise for all developers and needs to be perfected over time.

App store ranking have undergone significant changes in the last one year. Particularly, after the Chomp acquisition, Apple’s appstore ranking algorithm changed from being keyword focused to being influenced by other factors. Based on our experience, we think every aspect of the appstore ranking can be tackled through smart marketing across channels -

• Install Velocity – The rate of app installs is the single biggest factor that influences your rank. Apple algorithm takes into account the weighted average of the install rate over the trailing 4-7 days with the highest weightage for the last day. This is an extremely important piece of information and can be used intelligently to divide your campaign budgets. For example, whenever you run a campaign on our ad network, we would recommend that you increase your budgets just before the weekend as our network data reveals a 20%-25% jump in user engagement and downloads over this period. Also, pump up your social buzz and cross promotion activities around the same time. The combined effect of higher budgets, social marketing and increased user engagement snowballs to improve your rank and tends to positively impact the paid to organic ratio of downloads by two to five times.
• Number of installs- Developers can divide their marketing budgets across countries and platforms based on the number of installs required to get into the top 25 for each market. The nature of the application determines the demand. Consequently, more number of downloads are needed in a popular category than  in a less popular one to reach the top rank.                                                                For example, casual games represent a very popular genre of applications while demand for business applications is more limited. Moreover, free applications tend to have much higher download volumes than paid applications, as the threshold to download is lower.  According to a Distimo report ,the following were the number of daily downloads required in the US per category in April 2012  to make it into the top 25 -

On average, across all categories, the volume needed to hit the top 25 most popular free applications is 13 times higher than the volume needed to hit the top 25 most popular paid applications. However, there are large differences per category. For example, in the weather (9x) and education (9x) categories, consumers seem to be more willing to pay for applications.

The new algorithm is not only smarter but also very time sensitive which means that if all the factors don’t fall into place at the time of your app launch, your rank might not be #1. Hence, the marketing mix for a launch becomes a very critical factor for the app developer.

Similarly, the number of downloads needed in each market is different too. Our team of mobile experts analyzed the proportion of downloads required across markets to break into the top 25. The following is the summary of the analysis conducted among 500 popular apps across gaming, social and business segments.

Bringing the mobile world together: GMIC 2013
GMIC 2013レポート：モバイル業界が一同に

5月7-8日に北京で開催されたGMIC（グローバル・モバイル・インターネット・カンファレンス）の規模は、実際に来場した人にしかわからないかもしれません。業界関係者をはじめ10,000人以上が来場しました。前日の6日にVIPディナーが催され、カンファレンスがスタート。
モバイルに関するあらゆる業種が集まり、中国とその他の地域のモバイルインターネット業界における代表者が一同に会し、モバイルインターネットの発展について語り討論するのを見るのは大変興味深いことでした。

インモビ創業者兼CEOのナビーン・テワリは、初日の基調講演において、彼のビジョンとモバイル広告の未来について語りました。

インモビ共同創業者兼レベニュー＆オペレーション担当副社長のアミット・グプタは、モバイルインターネットの主なトレンドと消費者への影響についてプレゼンテーションを行いました。インモビとDecision Fuelによる共同調査結果から、モバイルインターネットユーザーの半数にとって、モバイルが主要もしくは唯一のアクセス端末であることを発表。この調査結果は、広告主がターゲットオーディエンスにリーチするのに大きなチャンスがあることを示しています。

インモビ中国代表のジェシー・ヤンは、米国と中国におけるモバイルアプリの動向とデータについて発表し、モバイルマーケティングによる収益について見解を語りました。インモビ調査では、米国内のモバイルインターネットユーザーの37%がアプリ内課金を行い、中国ではその数は46%にも及ぶと発表。これらの数値はモバイルアプリの収益化にとって非常に有益な情報であると共に、広告主にとって、モバイルとモバイルアプリが効果の高いマーケティング媒体として、活用する理由になります。

インモビの中国チームは、GMIC 2013において非常に大きな存在感を示し、来場者にモバイルの収益化と広告ROIの複雑な構造を説明していました。また、インモビのディナーパーティーは、広告主やパブリッシャーから好評で、招待者は質問、アイディアや課題をインモビチームに投げかけ交流を図っていました。

GMIC 2013に来られなかった方々、是非今からGMIC 2014への計画を立ててください。モバイルを利用するユーザーならGMICに行くべきでしょう。

The launch of this SDK is a step towards reducing the update cycles for developers by allowing them to leverage new ad formats released in the future without requiring an SDK change. It is also coupled with a new diagnostics tool to help developers improve the integration process and achieve higher eCPMs.

Like the iOS SDK 370 which was released a month ago, the new Android Ads SDK  is also MRAID 2.0 compliant. MRAID compliance is an industry wide effort by the International Advertising Bureau to ensure that developers do not face any interoperability issues when monetizing through rich media ads. This SDK is a leading effort from our side to ensure that our developers are able to display the most engaging and innovative rich media ads from premium advertisers across the globe, without any trouble in user interactions.

The new SDK also includes latency reduction features to reduce the load time for ads, resulting in an improved user experience.  Our new ad formats aim to increase personal interactivity through the use of in-built phone features like camera and mic and have support for HTML 5 video rendering, to help developers monetize better. Experiment with floating interstitials and many more ad formats released by InMobi through this SDK! Watch out for more updates on some of the new ad formats we will be releasing in the coming months.

To get started, download the SDK from our download centre now!

Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO, InMobi, delivered the keynote address on the opening day, sharing his vision on the future of mobile advertising.

Amit Gupta, VP Revenue and Operations, InMobi, presented key mobile internet trends and their impact on consumer behavior. According to research conducted by InMobi and Decision Fuel,  mobile is the primary or only means of accessing the internet for 50% of mobile web users. This translates into a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to reach their target audience.

Jessie Yang, GM InMobi China, shared key data on the mobile app phenomenon in the US and China and discussed how it could be leveraged for mobile marketing. An InMobi survey reveals that 37% of mobile web users in the US have made in-app purchases; the corresponding number for China is a staggering 46%. While these are great statistics for mobile app monetization, they also make the case for advertisers to leverage mobile and mobile apps as an effective marketing medium.

InMobi’s China team had a massive presence at GMIC 2013. The team had a great time explaining the intricacies of monetization and advertising ROI to visitors. InMobi’s exclusive dinner parties were equally well received by advertisers and publishers, who engaged Team InMobi with their questions, thoughts, ideas and challenges.

For those of you that couldn’t make it to GMIC 2013, you need to plan now for GMIC 2014. If you are doing anything remotely connected with  mobility, GMIC is the place to be  in Asia!

The fragmentation of devices on the Android platform across the of continuum form factors, resolutions and OS versions can make the task of selecting and requesting the right slot size seem fairly daunting. This is compounded by the fact that Android apps usually use the same APK to render advertisements both on smart phones and tablets.

The key to picking the right ad slot to get maximum results on your app is in understanding the size of the device, its screen density and size available to render the ad slot in Density-independent pixels (dp). Click here to know more: Android documentation

Optimizing Android apps for tablets

We have created a function that returns an optimal slot value when requesting for a banner ad from the Inmobi network.

Any publisher who would like to request the optimal slot based on the screen dimensions, can use the code below.


public static Integer getOptimalSlotSize(Activity ctxt) {
Display display = ((WindowManager) ctxt
.getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE)).getDefaultDisplay();
DisplayMetrics displayMetrics = new DisplayMetrics();
display.getMetrics(displayMetrics);
double density = displayMetrics.density;
double width = displayMetrics.widthPixels;
double height = displayMetrics.heightPixels;
int[][] maparray = { { IMAdView.INMOBI_AD_UNIT_728X90, 728, 90 }, { IMAdView.INMOBI_AD_UNIT_468X60, 468, 60 }, { IMAdView.INMOBI_AD_UNIT_320X50, 320, 50 } };
for (int i = 0; i < maparray.length; i++) {
if (maparray[i][1] * density <= width
&& maparray[i][2] * density <= height) {
return maparray[i][0];
}
}
return IMAdView.INMOBI_AD_UNIT_320X50;
}


To initialize and use the above method, the publisher must call the method as below:


private IMAdView mInMobiBanner = new IMAdView(this, getOptimalSlotsize(this), inMobiAppId);


Our android app publishers who have made this change have seen fabulous results with a 3- 4x increase in CTR on tablets compared to when they were rendering ads of phone optimal sizes on tablets.

Note: All images in this blog have been engineered for the purpose of explaining the content of the blog. Any resemblance to a real app, active or inactive, is purely coincidental.

Mobile devices present an opportunity for retailers, regardless of the type of business, to reach consumers whenever and wherever they are. Now, with growing smartphone usage, it has become even easier for mobile consumers to search for gift options and do that last minute shopping. Hence, it is important to include a mobile component in a retailers’ marketing initiatives, whether it is a banner ad, SMS campaign or an application, to not only further engage with consumers, but also to let them do last-minute shopping while they are on the go.

Mother’s Day Is Big Business

Working hard to support the family day in and day out, moms will be more than recognized for their devotion this Mother’s Day. According to National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Mother’s Day spending survey conducted by BIGinsight, US consumers will spend an average of $168.94 on mom, up 11 percent from last year’s $152.52. Total spending is expected to reach $20.7 billion.

The survey reveals that 14.1 percent of shoppers – the highest in the survey’s history – will spend more than $2.3 billion on electronics, treating mom to a tablet or smartphone.  More than one-third (34.4%) of gift givers will buy jewelry, spending a total of $4.2 billion.

Additionally, gift givers will splurge on a special outing, such as brunch or dinner ($3.5 billion), flowers ($2.3 billion), gift cards ($2.0 billion), clothing or clothing accessories ($1.7 billion), and personal service gifts, such as a day at the spa ($1.5 billion).

In addition to celebrating “mom,” Americans will buy Mother’s Day gifts for other women in their life, including their wife (23.6%), daughter (10.5%), grandmother (8.5%) and sister (8.2%). However, most will buy for their mother or stepmother (65.2%).

Mobile & Shopping

According to the NRF survey findings in US, 51.1% of tablet owners and 42.5% of smartphone owners will use their respective devices to research or make a purchase.

Mother’s Day Mobile Shopping Activities (% of Owners of each device)

Is your mobile strategy ready for that?

Here are a few tips for retailers to consider while planning a mobile ad campaign as part of the overall mobile marketing strategy:

• Drive a broad mobile strategy, reaching both existing and new customers via optimized mobile web sites, apps, SMS alerts and mobile display ads and ensure customers can engage or shop with a range of devices and mobile operating systems.
• Ensure mobile campaigns are context driven, targeted and integrated with the overall theme on broader brand strategy.
• Ensuring mobile websites and apps are fully optimized utilizing the right mixture of text, video and HTML5 graphics with access to e-commerce to create an engaging experience
• Employ mobile coupons and QR codes for campaigns to deliver timely information and offer discounts

 Mobile is an important channel and mobile messaging is very effective in occasional marketing initiatives as it gives the shopper an opportunity to shop on the go and not miss the occasion.  However, it is important to tailor the message to the special occasion and provide compelling and last minute offers to drive traffic.

This Mother’s Day, mobile can be your last minute companion for gifting moms and creating your most successful mother’s day ever.

We at InMobi wish all moms a Happy Mother’s Day and would love to know how your mobile helped you this year on this special occasion.

InMobi appeared in the aricle of Nikkei Newspaper on April 30th. Nikkei Newspaper is one of the most prestigious business newspapers in Japan.

テクノロジー関連の特集記事「IT覇者へ爪研ぐ面々」で、新しい収益モデルにおいて世界をけん引する米IT企業と競争する企業の一つとして、インモビが紹介されています。記事の中で、ハードウェアやソフトウェアに依存しない収益モデルであるモバイル広告配信の集客力で、インモビがグーグルを脅かす存在感を見せている、と書かれています。

The article features the new monetization models in technology and introduces InMobi as a global player to compete with the US tech giants. The article describes InMobi as follows: “For example, InMobi, an independent mobile ad network (HQ: Singapore), is showing the presence threatening Google in the reachable users in the mobile advertising industry.”

また、同記事の関連記事「成長するモバイル広告」の中でも、急速な拡大を続けるモバイル広告市場におけるグローバルプレーヤーの一つとして、世界で6億人を超えるグローバルな配信規模を持つインモビが挙げられています。

The article also refers to the booming mobile ad industry and says “InMobi has been developing the markets of emerging countries initially. They can deliver ads to about 600 million people globally. InMobi takes an advantage of the strengths based on the emerging countries.”

実際の記事内容については、こちらをご覧ください。
「IT覇者へ爪研ぐ面々」（日経会員ログイン[無料]が必要です）

[関連記事]
インモビは、アジア経済の成長に関する日経新聞の記事において、アジア市場からグローバルに成長した企業として掲載されました。
「インモビ、2013年1月1日元旦の日本経済新聞1面に掲載」

But ironically, due to simple and basic mistakes, Tablet apps at times make half the money that a Smartphone app makes through ads. Half the monetization when these apps should be making more than double! So, what’s wrong with this picture?

From InMobi’s large Publisher base, here are the top 3 usual suspects that result  in a decreased monetization for Tablet app developers.

• Missing Slot Size: When sending an ad request to an ad network, developers are given the flexibility to not mention a slot size. The ad network will simply provide a default ad based on the type of device.  While this is a convenience in case of smartphones, it can spell disaster for a Tablet experience. The below example shows how a 320×50 ad would look on a Tablet app. The user experience is poor resulting in low CTR and low monetization.

The immediate question would be, why not serve a 728×90 ad instead of 320×50 by default? In some cases, the 728×90 ad could get cut off in a 320×50 slot size resulting in a worse experience. Hence, to be on the safer side, ad networks will default to the smaller ad unit.

Solution: Make sure you specifically request for a particular sized ad rather than let the ad network use the default ad size.

• Using a 320×50 slot size: For smartphones, developers specifically request for 320×50 slot size.  For Tablets, these developers tend to carry on that legacy and continue requesting for the same slot size. The small ad unit not only under-utilizes the available space, it also destroys the quality of the user experience.

Figure 3: The experience of a 320x50 ad vs 728x90 ad in an iPad application.

Solution: Look closely at the available space on your app and request for a slot size that occupies the entire available space

• Not redesigning the ad slot  for the tablet app: If the developer knows that the app will show ads, the developer should be thinking of where to show the ad and how to show the ad in an optimal manner. Since the space is larger in a Tablet, the ads served can also be larger and hence monetization is higher. It is important to look at the recommended Tablet ad slot sizes and then design the app to accommodate one of these ads.

Figure 4: Experience of a 320x50 ad vs 300x250 ad on an iPad Application

Among the InMobi publishers, nearly 100% of the publishers who made these changes saw an immediate increase in monetization. They may seem trivial and simple, but experience shows that these are overlooked by many developers who focus on creating a great app and ignore the advertising aspect of the app.

Before a developer does go ahead and incorporate these tips, it is important to take a look at the optimized tablet ad sizes and analyze which the best size for the app.

Recommendation: Based on historical CTR, InMobi would highly recommend using 768×90 , 300×250 and 468×60 slot sizes in the app for maximum results.

Note: All images in this blog have been engineered for the purpose of explaining the content of the blog. Any resemblance to a real app, active or inactive, is purely coincidental. 

On the other hand, traditional messaging & communication apps have started experiencing a slowdown in growth of users from the west and are looking for new expansion opportunities. Needless to say, Asian markets seem to the obvious choice. While the idea of “going into the east” sounds exciting, the sheer size and opaqueness of Asian markets can be daunting.

So, what’s the difference between Skype & Line? And why do some apps grow much faster in Asian markets than others? Here are some best practices to make your social app a whopping global success:

• Multi-country launch and special focus on Asia: Typically, in the past, most communication apps are designed for local markets. Most US and European developers have been apprehensive about Asian markets and their low monetization. However, this trend is changing fast. According to a recent App Annie report, the average lifetime value of users in Japan is 3x times that of the US. Also, Japan and Korea accounted for higher revenues on Google Play in 2013 than the US, while China is growing rapidly to bridge the gap. With the crowded social app ecosystem and saturation of users in key markets, app developers should start start designing apps for Asian markets.

• Aggressive Marketing Strategy: Most communication apps have taken the route of “organic growth” & “word of mouth” for acquiring early users. While this technique was effective for early movers and established social networks like Facebook, the market is now way too fragmented and it’s not wise to rely only on organic growth. In the last 12 months, three of the top ranking iOS apps have been displaced by new ones. Developers who are launching new apps or features should consider paid marketing in competitive markets. At InMobi, we work with 90% of the top ranking apps in this category and recommend the following techniques for user acquisition on mobile-

1. Bursts –Post the soft beta launch of your app, the best way to get a critical volume of users in a short time is to go for burst mobile campaigns. Burst campaigns are “network takeovers” that are used to get high volume of users in 6-7 days. Though an expensive way of marketing, the second order effect on virality, organic downloads and momentum works very well for most social apps.
2. Leverage audience and Geo-targeting – Combine the burst campaign with an engaging rich media ad that targets specific cities, device, carrier and OS. This technique helps social apps to build a positive spiral on reviews and other social networks.
   
3. Trial and Error – Test multiple devices, platforms and improvise fast! Have a multi- pronged launch strategy so that you can hone in on the right audience.

• Customize, Customize and Customize: According to an Asia Survey report by iResearch, customization for markets can lead to very high retention of users. Maximizing interactions, cute designs, flexible UI, customizing for local nuances etc. are a few examples of what resonates well with customers. Line’s success against What’s App in Spain also validates this trend.

•  Monetize fast: Once your app has reached the critical mass of users, focus your effort towards monetizing the app. While Kakao and Line don’t have the same DAUs (Daily Active Users) as Skype or FB, their healthy revenues from streams like stickers, direct sponsorships and virtual currency enables them to expand quickly in new markets through paid User Acquisition.

• Focus on the right audience: Design your UI in such a way that it appeals to a broader audience, preferably spanning across young to middle aged users because such users have a higher propensity to pay for in app purchase. Typically, messaging apps in the US focus only on young users that have a lower ROI. Having a larger audience can help developers hedge such risks. This can also be achieved through a portfolio of countries. According to InMobi’s internal research, 60% of social app users in Japan are older than 25 years, and have a higher propensity for in app purchases. If your app comprises of US users only, it’s time to think of Japan as the next target!

• Leverage Mobile to its best: The new features in mobile devices e.g. camera, microphone, location detection, 24*7 usage, location detection and virtual items have created a slew of new business opportunities which were not possible in Web. Make sure your app leverages all these features to ensure a richer user experience!

Mahak is a part of the global performance team at InMobi with focus on user acquisition for strategic clients in North America (app developers) & product strategy.