So, I was going to do one of those “Pokemon Go RIP” pieces everyone is cranking out this week. But I spent three minutes thinking about it and decided not to. The problem with this corpse is that it is astonishingly vibrant, and there are three reasons why diagnosing the true state of Pokemon Go at this point is basically impossible. More →
Pokemon GO has rolled out in more than 30 countries and it is now two weeks since its US launch. The data around the usage patterns is becoming ever more mindboggling. New numbers AppAnnie has shared with BGR defy belief. Most apps would be deliriously happy to top 20 minute average daily engagement. But each Pokemon GO users spends more than an hour on the app every day. What makes this number stunning is the fact that more than 10% of all American smartphone users play the game.
It has the broadest user base of any mobile game, but also gets those users playing every day. This combination is completely unprecedented.
Apps that get their average user to spend an hour a day tapping the screen tend to appeal to small core of rabid fans. Whatsapp, a universally popular app is regarded as exceptionally addictive because it has managed to get to 27 minute daily average usage time.
LINE became the biggest tech company to enter the US stock market this year as its shares soared 30% above issue price in early New York trading. Buying these shares is something you should not do. Yes, messaging is a hot space and no, there aren’t many messaging apps companies you can invest in. But app vendors tend to be bought or go public at the worst possible time. The recent history bears grim witness.
Zynga announced the purchase of an app company called OMGPOP literally within 48 hours of when the main product of that app vendor peaked. OMGPOP proceeded to fall apart with stunning speed thereafter.
There is little doubt by now that Pokemon Go is becoming the most successful mobile app of all time, at least as far as launch-week performance is concerned. Niantic just launched the game in Germany… and it hit No. 1 on the iPhone revenue chart in just three hours. The 13 hours it took to hit the top of the US sales charts last week was incredible enough. But apparently the American media storm surrounding Pokemon has driven consumers in other countries into an absolute frenzy of anticipation. More →
Nintendo finally allowed a mobile game version of one of its biggest money-spinners to be made. And you have been hearing about it a lot over the past 48 hours. Possibly too much. But one thing that has not been widely discussed is the truly monstrous revenue performance that Pokemon GO has delivered right out of the gate. This app is a beast of truly exotic and unprecedented nature. It has delivered the hottest first 72-hour revenue performance in US mobile content history.
We are witnessing a decisive turning point in the mobile content industry. More →
Peach is dead, four days after its launch. This seems as obvious as the death of Meerkat one month after its debut.
One cool aspect of the modern app market is that the hype cycle can now peak in less than 24 hours. A messaging app called Peach triggered a media maelstrom on Friday afternoon, peaked at No. 85 on the U.S. iPhone downloads chart on Saturday, and started declining on Sunday, slipping to No. 129 by Sunday at 1:00 p.m. The tepid peak performance and an early decline are vastly significant considering the heavy tech media coverage surrounding the app. More →
Perhaps the biggest revenue success story in the U.S. app market this year has been the stunning rise of Spotify in the iPhone revenue charts. This is all the more remarkable considering that Spotify has been facing direct competition from some of the biggest names in the music and software businesses in 2015. More →
Precisely one month after HBO Now debuted on iOS devices, we are getting a sense of how many consumers are paying for the mobile service. Based on App Annie statistics, the early traction looks terrific. HBO Now this week hit the No. 1 spot on the U.S. iPad revenue chart — and even more interestingly, it has soared to the No. 2 spot on the super-competitive U.S. iPhone revenue chart. More →
Jay Z this weekend tweeted an ominous and serious accusation: “There are many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign. We are not anti-anyone, we are pro-artist & fan. #TidalFacts.” This would seem to indicate that he believes the broadly negative recent media coverage of his Tidal music streaming service is based on “big companies” waging an expensive media war on a small, floundering application. Is this a likely scenario? Let’s examine the timeline of the past week. More →
When Tidal made its big media push at the end of March, the core message was clear: while other streaming music services like Spotify and Pandora pay a pittance to artists, Tidal offers musicians a better deal. Unfortunately, Tidal also opted to use super stars like Nicki Minaj and Beyonce as spokespersons for the app. The result was the ultimate mixed message: You should feel sorry about how little money Nicki makes. More →
A few minutes after reporting its quarterly report, Netflix share prices spiked by 12%, despite having already climbed by 40% so far this year. The key surprise here is the subscriber growth: The company added 4.9 million new subscribers during the quarter, which is about 20% more than Wall Street expected. When Netflix offers a subscriber growth surprise of this magnitude, investors will overlook earnings and revenue misses. And Netflix did miss on both of those counts. More →
About three days after it received a lavish new funding round, Meerkat died an ugly and embarrassing death. It is hard to decide whether the Great Meerkat Debacle that has unfolded over the past week is a tragedy or a comedy — probably a bit of both.
The mobile streaming app that had whipped U.S. tech journalists into a frenzy announced $14 million in new funding on Thursday. Money poured in from Jared Leto, Greylock Partners and other illustrious sources. On the same day, Twitter launched its rival streaming app called Periscope. Apparently, investors didn’t stop to ponder why Meerkat people rushed to cash in so aggressively only a month after the app had debuted.
Well, we now know why. More →
