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April 01, 2017 at 07:33AM
Friday, March 31, 2017
THE APP MONETIZATION REPORT: How developers can navigate the engagement crisis and tap into the $102 billion app opportunity
Source: http://ift.tt/2gUdZ7f
April 01, 2017 at 05:01AM
April 01, 2017 at 05:01AM
App developers long considered the "pay once and play" model — in which users pay up front an app and aren't prompted to make in-app purchases — the best way to generate revenue. But as more "free-to-download" apps entered the market, users increasingly opted for these experiences. These apps offer microtransactions for in-app goods and services, and in-app ads.
As the app ecosystem expands further, it will become increasingly challenging for developers to compete in a crowded market. Overall, global gross app revenue will double to reach $102 billion by 2020, according to recent projections by App Annie. As a result, app monetization strategies need to shift at least as quickly as consumer trends and preferences in order for developers to capture a piece of this growing market.
A new report from BI Intelligence explores the top app monetization strategies under user- and advertising-paid approaches, and the growing combination of both. We will also look at emerging trends that could help developers navigate the fiercely competitive app ecosystem, and address the potential barriers that developers will have to overcome to reap the benefits of the multi-billion dollar market.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- The app ecosystem is expanding quickly, and it's becoming increasingly challenging for app developers to compete in a crowded market.
- To capture a piece of the growing market, app developers must adapt their strategies at least as quickly as consumer trends and preferences change.
- Developers can choose a user-paid or an advertising-paid approach to monetizing their apps. Different monetization strategies work best with different apps.
- There are a number of widespread challenges that developers must contend with both before and after they enter the app market.
In full, the report:
- Provides key factors driving the expected growth of global app revenue
- Evaluates the top app monetization strategies
- Looks at emerging trends to help developers navigate the app ecosystem
- Explains the challenges that developers face to compete in the app market
- And much more
Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:
- Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. » Learn More Now
- Purchase & download the full report from our research store. » Purchase & Download Now
Join the conversation about this story »
Pamela Edstrom, Who Helped Shape Microsoft’s Public Image, Dies at 71
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April 01, 2017 at 05:23AM
Ms. Edstrom, who joined Microsoft as its first director of public relations in 1982, became one of Bill Gates’s closest outside advisers.
April 01, 2017 at 05:23AM
Ms. Edstrom, who joined Microsoft as its first director of public relations in 1982, became one of Bill Gates’s closest outside advisers.
Op-Ed Contributor: Now Netflix Is All Thumbs
Source: http://ift.tt/2nIXpha
April 01, 2017 at 01:02AM
The movie streaming site has replaced stars with a simpler rating. It seems a clumsy solution.
April 01, 2017 at 01:02AM
The movie streaming site has replaced stars with a simpler rating. It seems a clumsy solution.
4 questions to help decide between working at a startup and a tech giant, from a former Google engineer
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March 31, 2017 at 07:48PM
March 31, 2017 at 07:48PM
Nikola Otasevic has pretty much done it all when it comes to software engineering.
He earned a BS in both electrical engineering and computer science and economics, as well as a master's in engineering from MIT. He interned at Microsoft in college, and also worked at MIT as a research assistant. He spent a summer as a technology associate at Bridgewater. He gained experience at smaller firms like Room 77, which was acquired by Google in 2014. Until 2016, he worked at Google as a software engineer.
And then, last year, Otasevic co-founded Refdash, where he's now CEO. Refdash is an interviewing platform geared towards tech workers. Having gone from working a tech giant to leading a team of four, Otasevic has plenty of career advice for engineers.
If you're deciding what kind of tech company you want to work for, he says, make sure to ask yourself four questions during the job search:
1. 'Do I want to eventually found my own tech startup?'
"I meet a lot of people who say, 'Oh eventually I want to start my own company, but I'll join Google now,'" he says. "My advice there is to always to just go and join a startup. That's where you'll actually learn how to start a new company. That's where you will see a lot of mistakes made, and a lot of successes as well."
A smaller company might provide you with a broader experience, which you'll need if you plan to strike out on your own.
2. 'What drives me?'
"If you are someone who gets a lot of ideas, like you're showering in the morning and you just have an idea, in a startup, you can have that idea live and serving users by that afternoon," Otasevic says. "In bigger companies like Google or Facebook, you'll probably need a month to roll that out."
So if you're driven by speed and constant, fast innovations, go for a smaller team. That being said, Otasevic says that your fast changes may go unappreciated by users, if your startup lacks a big reach.
"Everything you release in Google or Facebook will have millions of eyeballs on it," he says.
In order to figure out where you should take your talents, consider where you're more motivated by speed or impact.
3. 'What do I want to learn?'
"People often just settle for conventional wisdom like, 'Oh, Google has a great engineering team and therefore I will learn a lot there,'" he says. "Yeah, but what do you want to learn? Go deep."
He says that companies like Google offer excellent learning experience in terms of large-scale systems, while startups can provide more education on building things up from scratch.
4. 'In what environment do I work best?'
Many tech giants like Google come with great perks and strong company values.
"Google has a great culture, in terms of engineering," he says. "Intellectual curiosity is a value. That's been Google's philosophy in hiring forever. You want to hire people who are extremely curious and passionate about the world's problems."
On the other hand, tiny startups can also provide you with a close, fun environment, if you're on a great team.
"You really feel that people on the team are like your family," Otasevic says. "You're pulling in the same direction. Everything that goes good or bad, you'll get through it together."
SEE ALSO: A 26-year-old CEO and former Googler breaks down the worst job hunting advice 20-somethings get
Join the conversation about this story »
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THE APP MONETIZATION REPORT: How developers can navigate the engagement crisis and tap into the $102 billion app opportunity
Source: http://ift.tt/2gUdZ7f
April 01, 2017 at 05:01AM
April 01, 2017 at 05:01AM
App developers long considered the "pay once and play" model — in which users pay up front an app and aren't prompted to make in-app purchases — the best way to generate revenue. But as more "free-to-download" apps entered the market, users increasingly opted for these experiences. These apps offer microtransactions for in-app goods and services, and in-app ads.
As the app ecosystem expands further, it will become increasingly challenging for developers to compete in a crowded market. Overall, global gross app revenue will double to reach $102 billion by 2020, according to recent projections by App Annie. As a result, app monetization strategies need to shift at least as quickly as consumer trends and preferences in order for developers to capture a piece of this growing market.
A new report from BI Intelligence explores the top app monetization strategies under user- and advertising-paid approaches, and the growing combination of both. We will also look at emerging trends that could help developers navigate the fiercely competitive app ecosystem, and address the potential barriers that developers will have to overcome to reap the benefits of the multi-billion dollar market.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- The app ecosystem is expanding quickly, and it's becoming increasingly challenging for app developers to compete in a crowded market.
- To capture a piece of the growing market, app developers must adapt their strategies at least as quickly as consumer trends and preferences change.
- Developers can choose a user-paid or an advertising-paid approach to monetizing their apps. Different monetization strategies work best with different apps.
- There are a number of widespread challenges that developers must contend with both before and after they enter the app market.
In full, the report:
- Provides key factors driving the expected growth of global app revenue
- Evaluates the top app monetization strategies
- Looks at emerging trends to help developers navigate the app ecosystem
- Explains the challenges that developers face to compete in the app market
- And much more
Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:
- Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. » Learn More Now
- Purchase & download the full report from our research store. » Purchase & Download Now
Join the conversation about this story »
Op-Ed Contributor: Now Netflix Is All Thumbs
Source: http://ift.tt/2nIXpha
April 01, 2017 at 01:02AM
The movie streaming site has replaced stars with a simpler rating. It seems a clumsy solution.
April 01, 2017 at 01:02AM
The movie streaming site has replaced stars with a simpler rating. It seems a clumsy solution.
The groundbreaking app turning millennials into stock traders is now said to be worth more than $1 billion
Source: http://ift.tt/2ok79iW
April 01, 2017 at 02:32AM
April 01, 2017 at 02:32AM
Robinhood, the app that lets you trade stocks without paying any fees, is reportedly now valued at $1.3 billion, according to a report in TechCrunch, citing sources.
The new round of funding is reportedly led by Yuri Milner's investment arm, DST Global, and values the investing app at over $1 billion. That makes it a "unicorn" in Silicon Valley terms.
Robinhood declined to comment on the new funding round. Fortune previously reported that the startup was looking to raise at a valuation over $1 billion, after going out to raise new venture capital earlier in the fall.
Robinhood launched in December 2014 and quickly became a favorite among younger people looking to invest without paying the $7 per trade demanded by established firms. The app itself is stylish and simple, which helped lure the first-time stock traders that made up Robinhood's first big wave of users.
According to TechCrunch, investors were excited by the success of its new Robinhood Gold subscription plan, which launched in September. While the main service does not charge fees to trade stocks, Robinhood Gold subscribers pay $10 a month to get an extra 2.5 hours of trading, an extra line of credit, and bigger instant deposits of up to $2,000 into their bank account.
Even before the addition of Robinhood Gold, the app had become a favorite especially for millennials to dip their toes in stock trading. The company's low-cost, easy-to-use platform — users can start trading within minutes of opening an account — has cemented its popularity among a younger, phone-first generation. The company has more than a million users, who combined have transacted over $25 billion on the platform, according to the firm.
In February, Robinhood told Business Insider that most popular stocks by percentage of ownership of its users include Apple, Twitter, GoPro, and Facebook.
SEE ALSO: Here are the stocks investors on hot trading app Robinhood love the most
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: These apps for your iPhone are better than the ones Apple makes
$2 billion startup GitHub has officially won over Microsoft (MSFT)
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April 01, 2017 at 01:25AM
April 01, 2017 at 01:25AM
Today, Microsoft announces via blog entry the shutdown of CodePlex, its 11-year-old site where programmers could host and share the code for their software projects.
When it was founded in 2006, CodePlex was one Microsoft's biggest steps into the world of open source software — where any programmer, anywhere can download and tweak the code to their liking. At the time, Microsoft saw free open source software, including the Linux operating system, as a major competitive threat.
In that blog, Microsoft Corporate VP Brian Harry writes that the CodePlex shutdown is because the world of open source has almost entirely moved over to GitHub's very similar service. GitHub, a $2 billion San Francisco startup, rose from humble origins in 2008 to becoming known as the "Facebook for programmers."
"Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of amazing options come and go but at this point, GitHub is the de facto place for open source sharing and most open source projects have migrated there," writes Harry in that blog.
In fact, as Harry points out in his blog post, Microsoft has moved to GitHub in a big way, too: Back in September 2016, GitHub released stats showing that Microsoft beat out Facebook to become the company with the most programmers contributing to open source software on the platform.
CodePlex will officially vanish as of December 15th, 2017, writes Harry, but Microsoft will be providing tools to get existing code off of the platform.
Back in 2015, Google shut down its troll-ridden Google Code, too, as the world moved to GitHub. That means that, in a material way, GitHub has emerged victorious in a long but not particularly dramatic battle with Google and Microsoft. And, for Microsoft's part, it's another sign that the company is willing to place nice with others' technology nowadays.
SEE ALSO: Microsoft just edged out Facebook and proved that it's changed in an important way
Join the conversation about this story »
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