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Mobile apps were originally offered to create general productivity and information retrieval, such as email, calendar, contacts, the stock market and weather information. Thanks to (or due to) public demand and the availability of new tools for developers, apps gained rapid expansion into other areas. Companies started offering apps as an alternative method of delivering content with certain benefits over an official website.
But today it is a big barrier to get customers to download a new app without the right incentive. With a market that is overflowing with apps of all kinds, we as consumers are becoming increasingly careful about what we download.
51% OF CONSUMERS DOWNLOAD 0 APPS A MONTH
The second big reasons behind the scary figure for all app developers are the size of the app and how important the app is to the user. More apps lead to less memory on our phones and if the app is not important enough for the user, it is deleted or never downloaded. We should also not forget the user-friendliness! If you do not understand how the App works there is a 100% chance that you will delete it at once.
So how do you get around the problem? In our previous post, we talked about the importance of creating the RIGHT incentive for the user. And an incentive that often goes home with us users is availability and easy of use.
Why Google is so popular is because you can find everything through ONE website. It is easy to use and is always available. So it is no wonder that Google has become its own verb.
Facebook is place where ALL your friends were, Instagram is a place where ALL pictures are, Youtube is a place where ALL videos are. Slightly simplified but you get the hint.
And more and more people are starting to adopt the ONE place strategy and are even starting to take that step further.
WeChat is an Asian communication app, similar to Messenger, where you can do basically everything via their app. Chat with friends, order clothes, food, pay in stores and more. This has made the app incredibly popular. An app that does everything sounds like a dream, right ?!
It is not only WeChat that adopts that strategy, but Facebook has for a couple of years now tested a similar strategy on its platform Messenger. A platform meant for chatting with friends and companies has long expanded with more and more functionalities from transfers to payment solutions. The idea is ONE app where you can do "EVERYTHING" and this strategy seems to work since Messenger have over 1.3 billion users.
So now the question is if building an app is the right way to go when you know how hard it can be to get people to download your app?!
In summary: We have briefly talked about the importance of availability and easy of use to get people to download your app, and the strategy that WeChat and Facebook are applying.
In the next article we will discuss some good options for getting around the "download-problematics" and "ease-of-use" by using existing infrastructures.