Analyzing 21 Months of Mobile App Discovery

ANALYZING 21 MONTHS OF MOBILE APP DISCOVERY The mobile app marketplace is in a state of constant evolution and Fiksu has been charting that evolution via monthly changes in app download volume and user acquisition costs in our Fiksu Indexes. Here's a look back at some of the most notable moments since the start of 2012. App Store Competitive Index Measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free U.S. iPhone apps. Cost per Loyal User Index Measures the cost of acquiringa loyal user for brands who proactively market their apps. For the purposes of the Index, loyal users are defined as people who open an app three times or more. App Store Competitive Index 7M 4M 6.79M - January 2012 5.40M - October 2012 5.32M - December 2012 Artifical or "bot" downloads peaked before Apple banned them from the app store in March, making download volumes look artificially higher briefly. The introduction of the iPhone 5 drove The flood of new phones and tablets a significant spike in app downloads as users loaded up new phones. drives massive download volume in December and into January – we expect the same pattern this year. Cost per Loyal User Index + $2.00 $1.50 $1.00 $1.14 - January 2012 $1.06 - October 2012 $1.67- December 2012 $1.90 - August 2013 The remarkably inexpensive $1.14 cost per loyal user was due to holiday download volumes peaking in January, after many marketers had spent their entire budgets in December. The surge in volume caused by the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 created a glut of supply and a corresponding drop in advertising costs. Intense competition for users makes the holidays an expensive time of year to acquire users - we can expect more of the same this year. Interest in app marketing by deep-pocketed big brands has been climbing this year, but high volume and the cost-effectiveness of Facebook's mobile app install ads kept costs very similar to 2012 until July. Source: Fiksu Indexes {Fiksu www.fiksu.com/indexes Jan 2012 --------- Feb 2012 - -- - - --- Mar 2012 --- --- -- Apr 2012 ---- May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 --- - - - Aug 2012 Sept 2012 Oct 2012 ----- Nov 2012 Dec 2012 Jan 2013 Feb 2013 - --- - --- Mar 2013 Apr 2013 -------- May 2013 Jun 2013 Jul 2013 - - ---- Aug 2013 Sept 2013