Users in applications: what are the realities?
One of the most common mistakes made by developers during the preparation of their business plans (especially if this is their first application) is a serious overestimation of the number of users that this application can attract. Typical considerations on this subject: “My application is compatible with 400 million devices, so if we can reach at least 1% of them, it will already be 4 million users.” etc. The trap is that 1% sounds extremely modest, but in fact it is a gigantic figure.
In a recent study conducted by VisionMobile, of the 664 developers surveyed, only 6% have a base of more than 500,000 active users. There is an opinion that due to the peculiarities of the charts in app stores and the limited space for marketing, those developers who nevertheless managed to pass over half a million users have good chances to get a growing number of users in the near future with an increasing com.
What then happens to the others who have not overcome the mark of 500 thousand?
Having excluded from the study applications with an active base of 500,000 or more users, it turned out that the average number of active users on iOS is 70,000, on Android - 51,000. The average values of samples (medians) look somewhat more modest: 27,500 for iOS and 15,500 Active users for Android.
The relative difference between the average values is much smaller than between the medians, hence the conclusion that the distribution of the active user base needs to be investigated further.
As you can see from the graph, the base of 200,000 - 500,000 active users is the least represented, while the base of 50,000 - 200,000 is found 3 times more often. This allows us to conclude that somewhere at the level of 200,000 users there is a certain barrier, overcoming which, the application becomes more “noticeable” and the growth of the user base is much faster.
A similar leap is observed at the border of 501 - 2,000 users. This number of users is much more common than 2,001 - 5,000 users. Most likely, this is an indicator of the marketing activity of the application, the difference between effectively promoted applications and those that are not promoted.
It should be noted separately how the selected monetization model and application category affect the number of users. For example, applications that make money mainly on advertising (they are usually free) are much more likely to cross the border of 50,000 users, while the freemium model is very close to paid applications and causes less excitement among users. In the games category, competition is extremely high, which makes it quite difficult for developers to recruit more than 50,000 users, while the music and video category allows applications to pass the barrier of 50,000 and 500,000 users much easier. The combinations of different monetization models and application categories are almost endless, you can study the interactive schedule here .
In a recent study conducted by VisionMobile, of the 664 developers surveyed, only 6% have a base of more than 500,000 active users. There is an opinion that due to the peculiarities of the charts in app stores and the limited space for marketing, those developers who nevertheless managed to pass over half a million users have good chances to get a growing number of users in the near future with an increasing com.
What then happens to the others who have not overcome the mark of 500 thousand?
Having excluded from the study applications with an active base of 500,000 or more users, it turned out that the average number of active users on iOS is 70,000, on Android - 51,000. The average values of samples (medians) look somewhat more modest: 27,500 for iOS and 15,500 Active users for Android.
The relative difference between the average values is much smaller than between the medians, hence the conclusion that the distribution of the active user base needs to be investigated further.
As you can see from the graph, the base of 200,000 - 500,000 active users is the least represented, while the base of 50,000 - 200,000 is found 3 times more often. This allows us to conclude that somewhere at the level of 200,000 users there is a certain barrier, overcoming which, the application becomes more “noticeable” and the growth of the user base is much faster.
A similar leap is observed at the border of 501 - 2,000 users. This number of users is much more common than 2,001 - 5,000 users. Most likely, this is an indicator of the marketing activity of the application, the difference between effectively promoted applications and those that are not promoted.
It should be noted separately how the selected monetization model and application category affect the number of users. For example, applications that make money mainly on advertising (they are usually free) are much more likely to cross the border of 50,000 users, while the freemium model is very close to paid applications and causes less excitement among users. In the games category, competition is extremely high, which makes it quite difficult for developers to recruit more than 50,000 users, while the music and video category allows applications to pass the barrier of 50,000 and 500,000 users much easier. The combinations of different monetization models and application categories are almost endless, you can study the interactive schedule here .