With the app economy well and truly under way across multiple platforms, it’s no surprise that a cross-platform discovery service like mobile9 [1] is getting millions to use its service.
With an astonishing 30 million monthly unique users – 10 million of which are registered members – the Malaysia-based service has obviously struck a chord with its audience. The service essentially allows users discover what apps are available across multiple devices – including the iPhone, BlackBerry devices, Nokia Symbian phones, and the many Android devices – and also allow users to see a real-time stream of what apps other registered members are downloading.
Through a combination of social recommendations and working with app developers, mobile9 hopes that it would create a win-win situation for both developers and users, where developers can benefit from rising above the noise of a crowded marketplace, and users would be able to find undiscovered gems.
It says that the integration of a social layer makes it different from other app store leader boards, where publishers with strong budgets get to the top and stay there forever and a day (Angry Birds and Cut The Rope comes to mind), while thousands of apps that are equally, if not better, get buried below.
“Our users are actively downloading mobile content, exactly the right audience for developers. Developers can push apps and marketing messages straight to our users. The latter can then recommend to their own friends and so on. Good apps will explode virally,” said its founder Patrick Ooi.
A quick glance through the mobile9 site reveals many free items for download, apart from apps – for instance, there are hundreds of wallpapers and ringtones, which make up a bulk of what users are downloading at the moment. Items like these are downloaded directly from the website, but where apps are concerned, mobile9 would become more like a guide by redirecting you to the relevant app store.
We e-mailed Ooi to find out more about what mobile9′s user base is, and what future moves are in store for the service.
Where do most of your users come from, and what’s the most popular device being used on the service now?
Most of our users are from Asian countries like India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as the US and Germany. Symbian and Android are the most popular platform on mobile9 but we are seeing iPhone users picking up now that we support iOS apps.
We are based in Asia, but our content appeals to everyone. We even have have Mandarin, Spanish, and Japanese version of mobile9. One of the key is that our technology attempts to highlight content that is relevant to the user; for instance, in India, we are able to show more Bollywood ringtones, and if the user is from China, more Mandarin ringtones. So if you’re based in Singapore and you’re developing an app for Singaporeans, there’s a higher chance for our technology to give you more exposure for Singaporean users.
We noticed that most apps are free for download – does your platform support paid apps?
We do support paid apps, and it’s up to the developers to add them to mobile9. It’s just that free apps are more popular. Many developers are moving away from paid apps to in-game purchases or advertising for monetization. Also unlike the Apple App Store or Android Market, we are a discovery platform. Our model has always been helping developers push and market their mobile content and not a platform for them to sell. Leave that to the big boys.
In terms of social integration, we noticed mobile9 doesn’t use Facebook Connect, but rather sought to create a standalone social network.
Facebook Connect is coming to mobile9. We see Facebook as complementary to mobile9′s social layer to help make things go even more viral. But there’s limitation to it – you can’t earn badges, send virtual gifts, customize your profile, and do other things on Facebook — but in fact these activities are very popular especially in Asia, and is essential to the social experience at mobile9.
What would future plans be for mobile9 from now till the year’s end?
Now that we’ve launched we want to get more app developers to add their apps to mobile9, especially those from Asia. With countries like Japan opening up and a huge market appetite for apps in China and India, we believe there’s a huge opportunity for apps in Asia. This year’s going to be focused on what everybody is trying to solve – app discovery.
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