The chart above looks at a curated list of mobile apps across each category, and how often these apps are used compared to how long consumers continued to use them overtime. We plot each category by average seven-day rolling retention rate on the x-axis and weekly frequency of use on the y-axis. The data is based on worldwide metrics.
The first quadrant in the top right corner includes app categories that have frequent use and low churn—the holy grail for app developers—and result in high user loyalty. These categories include finance, shopping, weather, and health and fitness, which typically have stable and engaged audiences. App developers in these categories will have many more opportunities to monetize using ads and subscriptions.
The second quadrant in the upper left-hand corner contains app categories that are used frequently until a user churns. These categories include communication and social, business, sports, productivity, gaming, music, and entertainment. These apps require broad, ongoing acquisition strategies to constantly find new consumers. Developers also need to identify ways to re-engage lapsed users through timely push notifications, social media campaigns, or email reminders that offer new content or functionality during binge usage.
The third quadrant, in the lower-left hand corner, contains app categories that have infrequent use and high churn. With categories like books, photo and video, food and drink, navigation, and education, these apps are probably the trickiest for developers, who are challenged with keeping users engaged for the long term. Since the app’s value diminishes almost immediately, they are best monetized with premium pricing models that charge the consumer before providing access to the content, or by charging for the content itself.
App categories in the fourth quadrant, in the bottom right corner, are faced with low frequency of use, but high retention rates. News apps sit in this corner. In the digital era, most of us use news apps when pulled in through a news story. Developers might not need to worry about churn, but creating reasons to use the app throughout the week can be challenging. A subscription-based service can enable developers to generate a predictable source of revenue from such apps.
The app economy has flourished as app quality increased and smartphones flooded the market. However, increased competition means app developers must develop well-considered strategies to maintain new user acquisition and keep audiences engaged and loyal. This is where Flurry Analytics can help, so please get in touch with us or try out Flurry Analytics for your mobile app.
—Lisa Moshfegh, Product Marketing, Yahoo