[2012] Distimo Publication - Full Year 2012

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Publication - Year 2012

2012 Year In Review

By Gert Jan Spriensma, Analyst at Distimo



Distimo has a very clear objective: to make the app market transparent. The company was born out of the frustration of a lack of insights into the performance of apps and the manual work needed to track important metrics.

Our goal is to provide the best and most actionable app intelligence for anyone who

wants to compete in the app market. Our data-driven team seeks to help developers,

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knowledge of what’s happening daily in the global app market.

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•Conversion Tracking

to measure your full app sales funnel from discovery and campaigns to app launch.

•MarketData

to analyze the daily download and revenue volumes of any app in the market.

Founded in 2009, Distimo is a privately held company based in The Netherlands.

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A couple of winners emerged, some late entrants showed promise and Microsoft launched a new app store in 2012. This year-end report focuses

on the clear winners in 2012: the Apple App Store and Google Play. Android has been long hailed as the winner in terms of device installs, however

until last year developers complained about Google Play and the lack of monetization on the platform. Apple, on the other hand, redefined the app

store model, and proved to be highly successful in terms of monetization for developers. The large amount of applications (700K) that are available

on both platforms decreased the ease of discovery, and thus made it more difficult for developers to become successful. Still, some new publishers

managed to become successful and did so extremely rapidly, like Draw Something. This report details how the stores compare, who the clear

publisher and application winners of 2012 were, and shows the trends and stats in play to become the success story of 2013.

New and noteworthy

The major findings are:

Even though the growth in revenues in Google Play in the last four months is close to that of the Apple App Store

in 2012, the growth in daily revenues in the Apple App Store was higher than the total daily revenues in Google

Play when comparing absolute daily revenue values.

Looking at the worldwide download volumes, the app store opportunity is large. On a typical day in November

2012, the revenues in the Apple App Store exceeded $15M USD, while in Google Play the revenues are just below

$3.5M USD in 20 of the largest countries in both app stores.

Seven applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues in November 2012 in the Apple App Store for iPhone,

which is significantly lower number of applications than in January 2012. Moreover, in the Apple App Store for iPad,

six applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues, while in Google Play this figure was four.

Draw Something, one of the best known apps of 2012, reached 1M users in 9 days, however we’ve found it is

possible to gain 1M users even faster. Naver, one of the most successful Asian publishers, launched five applications

at the end of November 2012, and all five quickly became the most popular applications in many Asian countries.

We estimated Line Pop, the most popular of the five, generated 1.75M downloads within 72 hours.

The country with the highest tablet download proclivity is Russia, where 46% of all iOS downloads are on the

iPad. Other countries with a high proclivity of iPad downloads are The Netherlands and Finland with 38% and

35%, respectively. Japan is the country with the least tablet download proclivity, as only 7% of all iOS downloads

are iPad apps. The iPad revenues are already higher than the iPhone revenues in some countries when looking at

revenues, e.g. Russia.

Google Play showed tremendous growth during the past four months, with an aggregated growth in daily revenue

of 43% across 20 of the largest countries, while the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad grew by 21% in daily

revenue in the same period.

The proportion of revenue that derived from in-apps increased from 53% to 69% in 2012. However, in 2012 there

were still some publishers who were very successful with a paid-only strategy. Moreover, 35% of the revenue from

the top 10 publishers was derived from one-off fees in 2012.



There were many success stories in 2012 about applications that managed to became very successful in the matter of

a few days and gathered millions of downloads and revenues. On the other hand, there were also reports focusing on

the big proportion of applications that had almost no downloads or revenues at all. However, looking at the worldwide

daily download and revenue volumes, the opportunity is really huge. The revenues in the Apple App Store are $15M

USD on a typical day in November 2012, while in Google Play the daily revenues were just below $3.5M USD. Please

note that we only used revenue data for 20 countries* in the Apple App Store and in Google Play, however, the

countries we did not include in the year end report are also generally the countries that have lower daily revenues.

The App Market Still Amplifying in 2012

Google Play: Catching Up?

The United States is still the largest market by revenue, followed by Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia. Looking at Google Play only, Japan

rivals the United States. And while Japan is the second largest market for iPhone revenues, there are almost no iPad app sales. Another Google

Play success example is South Korea, Samsung’s hometown, which has low revenues from iPhone and iPad apps, but is the third largest country in

terms of revenues in Google Play.

Google Play showed tremendous growth in the past four months, with an aggregated

growth of 43% in daily revenues across all 20 countries. The growth in the Apple App

Store for iPhone and iPad was less spectacular in the past four months with 21%

growth in daily revenues, but looking back at January 2012 the Apple App Store grew

an estimated 51% in daily revenues. The iPad daily revenues increased by an estimated

71%, while the iPhone daily revenues increased by an estimated 40%.

Although the growth of Google Play in the past four months is close to that of the Apple

App Store in 2012, it is important to remember the absolute values in the Apple App

Store were already much higher. The growth in the Apple App Store was higher than

the total daily revenues in Google Play when comparing absolute daily revenue values.

United States Still Leads in Terms of RevenuesCombined Revenues in The Apple App Store and Google Play, 20 countries

Israel United States

* Australia, Canada, China,

Denmark, Finland, France,

Germany, Israel, Italy,

Japan, Korea, Netherlands,

Norway, Russia, Spain,

Sweden, Switzerland,

Taiwan, United Kingdom,

United States

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

+43%

+51%



As mentioned previously, revenues for iPad apps in Japan are relatively low compared to iPhone revenues. The same

goes for downloads, as demand in some countries is relatively low, while in other countries iPad apps are even more

popular than iPhone apps. The country with the highest tablet proclivity is Russia, where 46% of all iOS downloads

are on the iPad. Other iPad savvy countries are The Netherlands and Finland with 38% and 35%, respectively.

Japan is the country with the least tablet proclivity, as only 7% of all iOS downloads are iPad apps. When looking

at revenues, the iPad revenues are already higher than the iPhone revenues in some countries. Although this only

depicts the difference between iPhone and iPad downloads, it is a good indicator whether or not the tablet appeals

to customers in a particular country. As Android tablet just start to become popular, countries with a high proclivity

for iPad use and downloads could very well be the countries to target if you are a publisher aiming to reach the

tablet market.

Large Differences in TabletDownload Proclivity Among Countries

Successful PublishingEverybody remembers the success stories of applications that gathered millions of users within a couple of days.

Most notably in 2012, Draw Something did it in nine days. At Distimo, we know it is possible to gain one million users

much faster. Naver, one of the most successful Asian publishers, launched five applications at the end of November,

all of which quickly became the most popular applications in many Asian countries. We estimated Line Pop, the

most popular of those five, to have generated 1.75 million downloads within the first three days of its launch. This is

remarkable when you stop to consider that it took AOL nine years, Facebook nine months, and Draw Something nine

days to reach the one million users milestone. Moreover, Line Pop not only successfully attracted many users; it also

generated one million in estimated revenue within the first 12 days.

iPad Downloads As Proportion of the Total iOS Downloads Per Country46%

38% 35% 35% 34% 31% 31% 28% 28% 27% 27% 25% 24% 24% 24% 24% 24% 22% 21%

7%

The Road To 1M Users

Not all countries grew at the same pace. In some markets the daily revenues were already high, while in others the

iPhone was not for sale prior to 2012, for example. The table below displays the top five highest growing countries in

terms of daily revenue for the Apple App Store and Google Play in 2012 and the last four months, respectively.

Russia (+143%)

Japan (+112%)

Denmark (+111%)

Finland (+111%)

China (+110%)

Japan (+138%)

China (+118%)

Russia (+96%)

Taiwan (+74%)

Sweden (+64%)

Korea (+94%)

Japan (+60%)

France (+46%)

United Kingdom (+40%)

Russia (+37%)

Apple App Store for iPad Apple App Store for iPhone Google Play (Aug - Nov 2012)

9 Years 9Months 9 Days 3 Days



In-Apps Popularity Continues to Grow

Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions to make for app developers. We have seen

the average price of apps decline over the past few years, which is most likely due to

increasing competition. Moreover, one of the main trends over the past years was to

monetize via in-app purchases instead of an upfront fee. This trend continued in 2012

as the proportion of revenue generated by applications with in-apps increased. In spite

of this trend, some publishers decided differently and achieved a successful outcome.

One of the main success stories of 2012 that monetizes solely via one-off fees is the

application, Minecraft – Pocket Edition. Aside from Minecraft, other publishers such

as Electronic Arts, Apple and Gameloft still receive a large chunk of the revenues from

one-off fees. 35% of the revenue was generated by one-off fees among the top 10

most generating publishers on iOS.

Navigation Applications Are Most ExpensiveAverage Selling Prices in Each Category

The average selling price in both the Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone is

quite high for Navigation, Business and Productivity applications. Generally

speaking, customers seem to be willing to pay higher prices in the Apple App

Store for iPad.

The average selling price is down from $3.42 by 8% compared to January 2012

in the Apple App Store for iPad. The average price was $1.86 in January 2012

in the Apple App Store for iPhone, which increased by 16% over the course of

2012.

Average prices are in general higher in Google Play than in the Apple App Store

for iPhone.

$2.85

$8.04

$3.29 $2.78 $3.68

$5.74

$11.56

$3.11 $3.11 $3.49

$6.81

$3.61 $2.93 StoreAVG

$2.00

$3.62 $2.72

$1.62 $1.80 $2.57

$7.25

$2.26

$3.29

$1.86

$3.37 $3.17

$1.70 StoreAVG

Downloads & Revenues Per CategoryApple App Store And Google Play Aggregated - Categories With Less Than 2% Excluded

The uptake in these types of quick downloads are most common with games, which are the most downloaded and

revenue generating types of applications. However, other kinds of applications can generate a lot of downloads as

well. The graph below displays the popularity of each category as proportion of the whole store volume.

Downloads

Revenues

33%

8% 7% 5% 4% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1%

Proportion of Revenue from In-app Purchases (Apple App Store)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

69%

53%



Top 10 Most Grossing Cross-Store Publishers Among 20 of the Largest Countries (Apple App Store & Google Play)

App publisherAvailable

InTotal Apps (iPad /

iPhone / Play) Popular app example

Electronic Arts

Zynga

Gameloft

Apple

GREE, Inc.

Playtika LTD

TeamLava

Rovio Entertainment Ltd

Backflip Studios

Supercell

Both

Both

Both

Apple

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

Apple

126/266/62

31/44/20

105/198/65

6/7/0

11/96/122

4/3/1

26/26/22

14/17/13

31/36/10

2/2/0

Tetris

Words With Friends

UNO

iMovie

Monster Quest

Slotomania

Bubble Mania

Bad Piggies

DragonVale

Clash of Clans

The Winners Take It All? Digital markets where strong rankings effects are in place like in app stores (due to the focus on rankings), are known to drive a lot of downloads to a few large players.

Seven applications were responsible for 10% of the

revenues in November 2012 in the Apple App Store for

iPhone. Compared to January 2012, this is a significantly

lower number of applications, when 11 applications

accounted for 10% of the revenues. The pie is shared

with a larger number of applications in terms of free

downloads, 10% of free downloads were generated

by 31 apps. Moreover, in the Apple App Store for iPad

and Google Play these figures are lower, i.e., the

concentration of downloads and revenues towards a few

top applications is lower.

Number of Applications Responsible for 10%of the Free Downloads and Revenues

January 2012 November 2012

31 31

22

6 7 4

Downloads

Revenues

20

30

8 11

NA



Our 2012 year-end publication showcases a couple of success stories, but many other

publishers and applications that were also very successful over the past year were not

discussed. Among the top 10 highest grossing cross-store publishers on the previous

page, nine of the publishers are gaming companies. Only Apple is in the top 10 while only

publishing in one app store. Another single app store publishing publisher in this list is

Supercell. Supercell is a relatively new gaming company that has only published two games

to date: Clash of Clans and Hayday, which are specifically aimed at the tablet market. Their

two applications have dominated the top grossing lists for quite some time, and Supercell

is among the top 10 highest grossing cross-store publishers in 2012. In contrast, Electronic

Arts is available in both app stores with many applications.

For each specific store on the next two pages the top publishers and top applications by

downloads is given.

If you need more specific information about how popular certain applications and

publishers are, we have paid reports available that contain the top 300 most popular

applications and publishers per region including their full downloads and revenues in

2012.

We dove into the current state of the Apple App Store and Google Play in our 2012 Year in Review report, and

looked at how both stores developed over the past year. We also highlighted the success stories of a couple of new

publishers that became incredibly successful in 2012 including, Naver, Supercell and Minecraft. Naver, the publisher

of the messaging app Line amongst others, launched one application – Line Pop – that was estimated to have

generated one million downloads in just one day.

Google Play is just starting to rival the Apple App Store in a few countries on a worldwide scale, even though it is

still losing in terms of daily revenues. Although Google Play shows promise and had much higher growth figures than

the Apple App Store, the total daily revenue in Google Play was still lower than the absolute growth in the Apple App

Store.

Lastly, this publication details the 2012 winners, with a cross-store publisher list that includes known names like

Apple, Electronic Arts and Rovio, but also contains relatively new publishers like Supercell. A top 10 publisher and top

10 applications list for both the Apple App Store and Google Play is available.

Recap

Now Available (from €4,899):

the full year report on 2012

LearnMore

Trend analyses with download & revenue estimations used in this publication.

Top Apps & Pubs with download & revenue estimations covering full year 2012.

Basically, all the intel you need to compete in the app store market delivered in one comprehensive excel report.

http://www.distimo.com/full-year-report-2012



Top 10 PublishersBy Downloads In Apple App Store In 2012

App publisherTotal apps

(iPad / iPhone)Avg. pricepaid apps Popular app example

Apple

Gameloft

Google, Inc.

Disney

Electronic Arts

Out Fit 7 Ltd.

Rovio Entertainment Ltd

Tencent Technology

Chillingo Ltd

Zynga

6/7

105/198

12/23

144/131

126/266

31/33

14/17

21/64

212/347

31/44

$7.43

$5.32

-

$3.18

$3.21

$1.75

$2.10

-

$1.84

$2.75

GarageBand

Modern Combat 4

YouTube

Cars 2

The Simpsons

Talking Tom Cat

Angry Birds: Star Wars

WeChat

Parking Mania

Respawnables

Top 10 ApplicationsBy Downloads In Apple App Store In 2012

Instagram

Temple Run

Find My iPhone

Facebook

iBooks

Draw Something Free

iTunes U

YouTube

Podcasts

Twitter

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10



Top 10 PublishersBy Downloads* In Google Play In 2012

App publisherTotalapps

Avg. pricepaid apps Popular app example

Google, Inc.

Facebook

Rovio Mobile Ltd.

Go Dev Team

Adobe Systems

Kakoa

YouTube

Runner Games

NHN Corporation

Skype

60

2

13

135

31

4

1

12

119

4

-

-

$2.29

-

$10.00

-

-

-

$1.28

-

Google Translate

Facebook Messenger

Angry Birds Star Wars

GO SMS Pro

Adobe Reader

KakaoStory

YouTube

Basketball Shoot

네이버 - Naver

Skype

Top 10 ApplicationsBy Downloads* In Google Play In 2012

Street View

Facebook

Voice Search

Maps

Gmail

YouTube

Adobe Flash Player

Skype

Whatsapp Messenger

KakoaTalk

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

* Downloads include pre-installs



Visit our webinar on the publication

2012 Year In Reviewon thursday the 3rd of January

@ 05.00PM CET (08.00AM PST)

Register here!

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6312557186408534528



Track daily downloads and revenues of any app with Distimo AppIQDistimo AppIQ allows users to:• Track and compare app downloads and competitor app downloads: Analyze an app’s

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Events such as price changes, featured listings and version updates are also included,

and allow the user to analyze the influence of each event on downloads.

•Analyze competing app revenues including those from in-app purchases:

View daily revenues from competing apps side-by-side with the their own app and

get extensive insight into the revenue generation of different business models,

revenue per country, and platform.

• Identify the most popular and upcoming new apps: The Leaderboard provides the

daily rankings of all applications, and can be viewed by app store, country, category,

device, and free/paid/gross. All of the major app stores are supported, and for iOS

and Android, the daily volumes per individual app are also provided. AppIQ users

see the daily downloads and revenue from in-app purchases and one-off fees.

Developers can also use the Leaderboard to see how many downloads are needed to

achieve a certain ranking on any given day.

Learn more about AppIQ at www.distimo.com/app-analytics/appiq.

http://www.distimo.com/app-analytics/appiq

http://www.distimo.com/app-analytics/appiq



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