About cross-platform analytics and why we launched it
The modern world is on the path of universal integration. The current generation is called screenagers (from English screen - screen, age - age, by analogy with teenager - teenager). The attention of the current audience constantly switches between five screens: TV, movie screen, computer, tablet and smartphone.
Applications are increasingly coming out on multiple platforms at once, to be closer to users, and become cross-platform. And, of course, such applications need appropriate analytics.
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Analytical service devtodev.com is pleased to present you cross-platform analytics. Let's see together what it is and why it is so cool.
What are the advantages of cross-platform?
More users
The more platforms the application chooses, the more users will be able to install it on their devices. The iOS and Android markets compete for users, and the cross-platform application allows users to get users from both markets at once.
Marketing is getting easier
With such a large audience, there is no need to target marketing to narrow segments of users - you can contact everyone at once. The problem of choosing the means of communication with the user becomes less urgent - you can choose any means of disseminating information for the audience.
Resource Efficiency
Modern tools allow you to develop one application that will be available for several platforms at once. Total, with the same effort, you increase your audience and, consequently, cash flows.
The disadvantages of cross-platform used to be called difficulty in analyzing applications on different platforms. However, now this is not the case, and devtodev removes these problems from developers of cross-platform applications.
How does cross-platform analytics work?
Devtodev cross-platform works for the following platforms:
If your application runs on multiple platforms from the list, then you can experience all the benefits of cross-platform analytics.
Each platform has its own characteristics. It has long been known that Google Play is significantly ahead of the iOS App Store in the number of installed applications. But at the same time, the iOS App Store is ahead of Google Play in revenue. Users of iOS devices, although in the minority, are more likely to acquire paid content.
Image source
If we talk about other metrics, then, for example, user retention, according to our data , is highest on Windows Phone. This is quite explainable by the fact that on Windows Phone, for the time being, there are simply fewer applications, and the competition between applications per minute of user's leisure is lower.
It turns out that the behavior of users in the application is different on different platforms: this may be due to the conditions of the market, and the tendency of people to monetize, and simply the interface features of the devices themselves.
Cross-platform analytics allows you to see these user differences across platforms. You can calculate the indicators you are interested in for each platform, compare them with each other, identify problems, outline development paths for different platforms. Cross-platform will help you make strategic decisions on the development of platforms and, ultimately, make more money.
On the other hand, cross-platform analytics is able to abstract from the concept of a platform. If the same user prefers to open the application on multiple devices for one period, then it is important for you to analyze its behavior, regardless of the device and platform. After all, all this time he remains the same as your user, and the platform here is just a means of communication between him and you. Therefore, all analytics in devtodev can be calculated both depending on the platforms and regardless of them.
We are talking about such groups of metrics as:
Let's give an example.
Let's say your application is available through the web, as well as on smartphones and tablets for iOS and Android, and you want to compare the performance of the platforms.
The following values are available:
Knowing these values, you can evaluate their relationship with each other. However, does this mean that the total project MAU is 30000 + 40000 + 50000 = 120,000? No, because the same user can log into the application from different platforms. And it is important to track the audience of each individual platform, and in the project as a whole.
The total MAU is actually 100,000 users. It turns out, if it were not possible to track the total MAU, we would be mistaken for 20%, and to track the dynamics of the indicator such an error is unacceptable.
Also, a cut on the platforms allows you to compare the effectiveness of retaining users on different platforms with each other. In our example for iOS and Android, new users make up 20% of the total monthly audience. But in the web-version - all 50%. There may be several hypotheses:
Be that as it may, this is another question that the developer must answer. It is possible that by correcting the error affecting the retention of users of the web version, we will be able to increase its LTV, and therefore increase the total LTV and earn more.
Also cross-platform analytics devtodev allows you to compare with each other users who have chosen one platform and several platforms at once.
How many users puts the application on multiple platforms? Can these users be called more loyal? How much better are such users monetized? Does it make sense to encourage users to use multiple platforms at the same time? Devtodev analytics will answer these questions.
Let's go back to the example.
It is likely that users of our application who are simultaneously playing on Android and iOS are more loyal to us (otherwise why would they put our application on both platforms?). We can calculate monetization metrics (LTV, ARPU, ARPPU, share of paying) for such users, and if the hypothesis that they are monetized better works, then it makes sense for other users to drag on using several platforms simultaneously. By launching the campaign “Come with Android and get a gift”, we will increase the percentage of loyal users in our audience, which will not be slow to affect our money.
For what cases is it necessary cross-platform analytics?
An excellent example of a cross-platform game is Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft from Blizzard. According to the Superdata study , this game earns $ 20 million per month. And the total number of players exceeded 30 million users.
This game is available for computers, smartphones and tablets, both for iOS and for Android. In this case, the card mechanics of the game allows users to compete with each other, on whatever platform they play. Cross-platform in action! All Hearthstone players are combined into one large ecosystem, and for the player it is completely unimportant from which platform he plays, and from which his opponent.
Moreover, the same user can play Hearthstone from different platforms during the day: in the morning play a game or other from the tablet, in the subway from the phone, and at work, secretly from the boss, play it from the computer. Of course, it is not a question of a user having a separate account on each platform, with a separate deck and game currency balance.
There is no doubt that the guys from Blizzard are asking the following questions:
Correctly posed questions and reliable answers to them allow Bizzard to optimize their game for each platform, to make strategic decisions on the development of new platforms (for example, recently the owners of the Samsung Galaxy S6 could receive for free three classic decks plus an exclusive card cover). As a result, Hearthstone conquers more and more users who stay in the game for a long time and bring even more money to Blizzard.
What will happen to cross-platform in the future?
The tendency to increase the number of cross-platform applications on the market allows us to believe that cross-platform for a long time, if not forever, will be a key trend in application development. Therefore, manage to make your application cross-platform right now, and choose the devtodev system for analytics.
Applications are increasingly coming out on multiple platforms at once, to be closer to users, and become cross-platform. And, of course, such applications need appropriate analytics.
')
Analytical service devtodev.com is pleased to present you cross-platform analytics. Let's see together what it is and why it is so cool.
What are the advantages of cross-platform?
More users
The more platforms the application chooses, the more users will be able to install it on their devices. The iOS and Android markets compete for users, and the cross-platform application allows users to get users from both markets at once.
Marketing is getting easier
With such a large audience, there is no need to target marketing to narrow segments of users - you can contact everyone at once. The problem of choosing the means of communication with the user becomes less urgent - you can choose any means of disseminating information for the audience.
Resource Efficiency
Modern tools allow you to develop one application that will be available for several platforms at once. Total, with the same effort, you increase your audience and, consequently, cash flows.
The disadvantages of cross-platform used to be called difficulty in analyzing applications on different platforms. However, now this is not the case, and devtodev removes these problems from developers of cross-platform applications.
How does cross-platform analytics work?
Devtodev cross-platform works for the following platforms:
- iOS;
- Android;
- Windows (starting from 8.1);
- web.
If your application runs on multiple platforms from the list, then you can experience all the benefits of cross-platform analytics.
Each platform has its own characteristics. It has long been known that Google Play is significantly ahead of the iOS App Store in the number of installed applications. But at the same time, the iOS App Store is ahead of Google Play in revenue. Users of iOS devices, although in the minority, are more likely to acquire paid content.
Image source
If we talk about other metrics, then, for example, user retention, according to our data , is highest on Windows Phone. This is quite explainable by the fact that on Windows Phone, for the time being, there are simply fewer applications, and the competition between applications per minute of user's leisure is lower.
It turns out that the behavior of users in the application is different on different platforms: this may be due to the conditions of the market, and the tendency of people to monetize, and simply the interface features of the devices themselves.
Cross-platform analytics allows you to see these user differences across platforms. You can calculate the indicators you are interested in for each platform, compare them with each other, identify problems, outline development paths for different platforms. Cross-platform will help you make strategic decisions on the development of platforms and, ultimately, make more money.
On the other hand, cross-platform analytics is able to abstract from the concept of a platform. If the same user prefers to open the application on multiple devices for one period, then it is important for you to analyze its behavior, regardless of the device and platform. After all, all this time he remains the same as your user, and the platform here is just a means of communication between him and you. Therefore, all analytics in devtodev can be calculated both depending on the platforms and regardless of them.
We are talking about such groups of metrics as:
- new users;
- user activity (DAU, MAU, sticky factor, lifetime, and so on);
- absolute monetization metrics (income before and after the deduction of the market commission, the number of transactions, the number of paying users);
- relative monetization metrics (percentage of payers, ARPU, ARPPU, average bill, LTV, and so on).
Let's give an example.
Let's say your application is available through the web, as well as on smartphones and tablets for iOS and Android, and you want to compare the performance of the platforms.
The following values are available:
Knowing these values, you can evaluate their relationship with each other. However, does this mean that the total project MAU is 30000 + 40000 + 50000 = 120,000? No, because the same user can log into the application from different platforms. And it is important to track the audience of each individual platform, and in the project as a whole.
The total MAU is actually 100,000 users. It turns out, if it were not possible to track the total MAU, we would be mistaken for 20%, and to track the dynamics of the indicator such an error is unacceptable.
Also, a cut on the platforms allows you to compare the effectiveness of retaining users on different platforms with each other. In our example for iOS and Android, new users make up 20% of the total monthly audience. But in the web-version - all 50%. There may be several hypotheses:
- either the web version has been released recently, and is only gaining users,
- or there is an active purchase of traffic in the web version,
- or else there is a problem in keeping users in the web version.
Be that as it may, this is another question that the developer must answer. It is possible that by correcting the error affecting the retention of users of the web version, we will be able to increase its LTV, and therefore increase the total LTV and earn more.
Also cross-platform analytics devtodev allows you to compare with each other users who have chosen one platform and several platforms at once.
How many users puts the application on multiple platforms? Can these users be called more loyal? How much better are such users monetized? Does it make sense to encourage users to use multiple platforms at the same time? Devtodev analytics will answer these questions.
Let's go back to the example.
It is likely that users of our application who are simultaneously playing on Android and iOS are more loyal to us (otherwise why would they put our application on both platforms?). We can calculate monetization metrics (LTV, ARPU, ARPPU, share of paying) for such users, and if the hypothesis that they are monetized better works, then it makes sense for other users to drag on using several platforms simultaneously. By launching the campaign “Come with Android and get a gift”, we will increase the percentage of loyal users in our audience, which will not be slow to affect our money.
Dmitry Kravtsov, CEO of devtodev:
There is a trend towards the development of cross-platform applications. However, it is necessary to be able to analyze them, and there was no any in-depth analytics on the market that would suit the developers of such applications. We decided to remove these problems from the developers and offer our cross-platform analytics functionality. I’m sure the developers will see the benefits of our analytics, be able to develop their applications in the right direction and earn more.
For what cases is it necessary cross-platform analytics?
An excellent example of a cross-platform game is Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft from Blizzard. According to the Superdata study , this game earns $ 20 million per month. And the total number of players exceeded 30 million users.
This game is available for computers, smartphones and tablets, both for iOS and for Android. In this case, the card mechanics of the game allows users to compete with each other, on whatever platform they play. Cross-platform in action! All Hearthstone players are combined into one large ecosystem, and for the player it is completely unimportant from which platform he plays, and from which his opponent.
Moreover, the same user can play Hearthstone from different platforms during the day: in the morning play a game or other from the tablet, in the subway from the phone, and at work, secretly from the boss, play it from the computer. Of course, it is not a question of a user having a separate account on each platform, with a separate deck and game currency balance.
There is no doubt that the guys from Blizzard are asking the following questions:
- how many users play on each platform;
- how much money each platform brings;
- what is the effectiveness of the platform;
- is there any difference on which platform the player first played;
- are there any imbalances when players on one platform have a winning percentage higher than on another;
- how many users play on multiple platforms;
- How users are monetized using multiple platforms simultaneously;
- how many users live in the game on each platform;
- and so on.
Correctly posed questions and reliable answers to them allow Bizzard to optimize their game for each platform, to make strategic decisions on the development of new platforms (for example, recently the owners of the Samsung Galaxy S6 could receive for free three classic decks plus an exclusive card cover). As a result, Hearthstone conquers more and more users who stay in the game for a long time and bring even more money to Blizzard.
What will happen to cross-platform in the future?
The tendency to increase the number of cross-platform applications on the market allows us to believe that cross-platform for a long time, if not forever, will be a key trend in application development. Therefore, manage to make your application cross-platform right now, and choose the devtodev system for analytics.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/294264/
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