App promotion: The mobile app market is more like an app graveyard

The company was founded in 2010 and developed a dating project. From dating websites to mobile apps, we have encountered constant setbacks and failures, but we have persisted in trying and have gone through a long period of 7 years. We have invested a lot of money and tremendous energy. Although the App is already online , the project is now facing failure and closure. The mobile application market is more like an application graveyard, because most of the apps in the market have failed and died. The reasons for its death were, on the one hand, problems with the software itself and the unreliable product; on the other hand, problems with promotion .

As the APP is about to die, let me talk about the promotion difficulties encountered by this project, the reasons for its death and some last words.

Three characteristics of the mobile app promotion dilemma

(1) First point

The target group is part of the crowd rather than all of it, and is scattered among the overall population. These people have no place to gather, so targeted promotion is impossible. This will disturb many users who do not need the software when promoting it, resulting in large investments and low returns.

(2) Second point

Software is not a heavy and powerful product for users, and it is difficult for developers to promote it. After installation, users will see some changes and improvements in their lives or work, but there will not be major changes, so users will not help you spread the word.

(3) The third point

There are already many similar products on the market, which are flooding the market. Users are no longer new to them and have become immune to them. It is difficult for them to install and experience new software, even though the new products may have small or large innovations and special features.

The saturation and vacancy of dating apps

There are already hundreds and thousands of dating apps in the app market . It seems like a red ocean and extremely saturated, but with so many dating apps, people with small work and social circles, there is no app that can help singles find a partner, make friends, or organize activities easily, conveniently, and quickly. There are still opportunities in the actual dating software market, and there is a lack of good products. Whoever can make efficient and safe dating software will have the opportunity to stand out.

The relationship between app startup failure and the app market

There are now hundreds of thousands to millions of apps, and there are many categories of dating.

The promotion of a dating app through channels outside the app market usually requires large investments but has low results. Most startups, including Wobiancao, lack huge funds for advertising. As an important channel for application installation, there are hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of similar software in the application market. The application market does not rank based on quality, but on popularity. Therefore, the first ones that are famous, have a large cumulative installation volume, and those who pay people to increase the installation volume can always occupy the top of the list; while most others, including some relatively excellent new products, can only sleep behind the hundreds or thousands of others, and are waiting to die without users installing them. This has a lot to do with the application market.

Of course, the application market does not have the ability to distinguish the quality of applications. Applications are divided into 360 categories, and each category is like a mountain between two mountains. How can it be difficult to judge the quality of software in so many different industry categories? Everyone can look at the size of the data, but this is not the only criterion for judging the quality of software.

Software ranking mechanism in the application market

The ranking of apps on the homepage and navigation directory of the app market is based on the principle that the apps with the largest total installation volume and the highest installation volume in the most recent period are placed in front. A large cumulative installation volume only means that the software was developed first and launched first, and has accumulated a high installation volume, so it is the first to be on the list. It does not mean that the software has the best functions, services, and usage effects in this field. If the software launched later is better than the first software, but it can only be ranked hundreds of places behind, as an app market, it should strive to maintain fairness and give latecomers a chance to be on the list, rather than ranking only by volume. In addition, ranking by volume has also encouraged a large number of apps to engage in fraud, inflating installation volumes and reviews, and the app market has no ability to combat fraud, resulting in the proliferation of the ranking-boosting industry.

The top-ranked software are mainly based on being first-rate and fake rather than being ranked according to quality, with a large number of non-optimal software occupying the top positions. Taking dating software as an example, some mediocre products have long occupied the top positions in the software market for free, with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of installations every day, and thus making millions and tens of millions of profits every day; however, some excellent products can only be ranked after hundreds of others, with only sporadic installations every day. If they want to spend some money to rank higher, they don't have this service (some markets have this service, but the operation is complicated and there are few ad spaces ). Moreover, the cost of promoting it in the market is too high, the effect is too poor and it is too intrusive. Entrepreneurs find it difficult to maintain a basic life. This is the problem with the ranking mechanism of the application market.

PPC allows excellent applications to appear in front of users at a low cost

In 2016, the App Store plans to introduce bidding for app rankings, where developers can pay to get higher rankings in search results. An editor from a technology channel surveyed Chinese developers on this matter, and almost all developers expressed their willingness to purchase this service, because most users will only browse and install apps ranked at the top, while there are hundreds to tens of thousands of similar software, and the vast majority have no chance of being ranked high. The competition is so fierce that one can imagine the difficulties and anxiety developers face in promoting their products. Therefore, they are very eager and active in paying for ranking services. However, when the editor investigated two Chinese Android application markets, they got different reactions. They emphasized:

“App rankings should be based on quality, not payment. This will affect developers’ efforts to polish their software. We are not considering adding competitive bidding to the rankings for now.”

However, the application market is unable to comprehensively and systematically rate the quality of more than hundreds of thousands of software programs, yet it claims to rank them based on quality. This is a contradictory logic. As a result, the developed software has no users, no feedback, and no motivation to continue updating and polishing. There are a large number of excellent applications. If they lack promotion channels and funds and have not been downloaded and installed in large quantities, they will never be recommended and ranked high, and will always be sleeping at the bottom of the application market rankings, without users, until they fail. It would be better to allow developers to bid freely in hundreds of categories and thousands of keywords to display the top rankings to users, and let users judge after installation.

App bidding ranking is a win-win situation for all parties

The bidding ranking mechanism is welcomed by developers because it is too difficult to promote a software.

Promotion outside the app market cannot rely on precise targeting, and most app ads will disturb users, with high investment and low effect. However, promotion in the app market, users are already looking for software, so there is no need to disturb them, and it is low-cost and high-effective.

Bidding ranking brings three benefits: developers can acquire users at low cost, users can discover excellent applications, and application markets can earn advertising fees. But why are app markets so reluctant to launch this service? The main reason is that most application markets are now small products under large commercial groups. Expenses are not a problem and there are no profit indicators. It is dangerous to have no commercial pursuits, which will inhibit and lead to mediocre products. No one needs to be responsible for the excellence of the application market, for entrepreneurs, and for group leaders. There is no motivation to think about how to make the product better, serve entrepreneurs and users well to seek profits, and there is no enthusiasm to spend more time thinking about "how to present excellent applications to users". The background program has a solidified algorithm and gives priority to the software with the largest installation volume. It does not understand the suffering of thousands of App entrepreneurs, resulting in difficulties in promoting a large number of excellent software and including hundreds of thousands of applications. With so many softwares crowding into one market, if there is no good ranking mechanism, users will not be able to discover the excellent products among them, and there will be few installations. For most entrepreneurs, what they are entering is not a market, but a graveyard.

A lot of excellent software in specific categories die because they lack strong promotion power and cannot be pushed to some niche target users scattered among the population. Although some markets have launched top-level app promotion services, they are compatible and mixed with the Group's other advertising systems. The various types of targeting, options, and menu operations created for advertising are very complicated. The app market should come up with an independent, simple bidding promotion system.

The software market should launch a market homepage, navigation directory, keyword search promotion and paid ranking advertising

How to implement this function is another philosophy. The recommended solution is: software ranking 1, 3, 5... odd-numbered rankings are sorted according to the previous algorithm, 2, 4, 6... even numbers are sorted from high to low according to the bid price of each installation of the advertisement. Odd numbers are regular sorting, even numbers are advertisement sorting, mixed staggered sorting, and regional and other targeted delivery are added. There are thousands of applications of each type in each row, so that there can be at least dozens or hundreds of application advertising display space, instead of being limited to displaying one or two application ads, with thousands of troops competing for a single plank bridge.

Don’t think that bidding advertising will lead to low-quality software being ranked at the top in terms of payment. If the software is not up to standard, advertising will only lead to bad reviews, uninstalls, complaints and reports. It is a losing business and will not continue to rank at the top in the long term.

Last words

Finally, I want to say that there are already a large number of application martyrs sleeping in major application markets. After installation, they cannot be registered, logged in, or connected. They have not been updated and maintained for a long time and have stopped service.

Many apps that entrepreneurs invested a lot of money, time and energy to develop have died. However, the surviving Wobiancao apps and apps facing the same situation do not want to die. They did not die because of product problems, but because of promotion problems, so they are unwilling to accept this.

But there are signs and trends that it is on the verge of closure. I write this article before I die, hoping that it will bring some changes to the industry. If the market environment changes one day, I will come back.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

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