美国科技博客gigaom的一名作者Ryan Kim最近撰文表示，他每天几乎都会收到一封吹嘘其应用下载量达数百万的邮件。各个新兴公司争相夸耀其在最短时间内达到的最高下载量，这似乎已经成为各家公司展露锋芒的一场竞赛。

一方面，他觉得能够看到应用程序层出不穷，初创企业遍地开花，并都取得不错成就，确实是个好事。但同时也开始厌倦甚至有一点怀疑这些数据的客观性。是的，数百万的下载量确实是个震撼人心的数据，但他想听的是游戏在6个月后，每周、每月的用户还有多少，用户多久玩一次游戏？从根本上来说，他想知道的是下载量以外的其他更多信息。

iphone_apps

下载量只是反映一时情况的数据，可以通过合适的病毒式传播渠道，良好的评论以及名人推荐来推高数值。此外，在线营销和内置广告也可以促进下载量的增加，但这让我们不得不开始怀疑这些用户的价值，有些用户只是单纯对广告做出反应，并不是真正对应用感兴趣。如今越来越多的付费服务选项蜂涌而至，用户为获取虚拟商品或虚拟货币而下载了不少应用，这样一来应用的下载数据就更不可靠了。Ryan Kim称他并不是指这个数据毫无价值或者营销手段不正当，只是认为下载量的增加是可以通过多种途径来实现。游戏邦认为对于游戏来说，更困难的是要如何保持用户的黏性。

Ryan Kim希望开发商能够更多关注用户黏性，不要只是提供一些稍纵即逝的数据，而要让我们知道用户对产品的忠诚度，除此之外一切都毫无意义。Ryan Kim怀疑很多开发商通过强调下载量来掩盖其用户一去不复返的事实。应用分析公司Localytics上月所做的调查就印证了这一点：有26%的应用程序沦为一次性试用品，有大量的应用只被访问过2到5次。与此同时，该调查还指出仅有26%的用户对应用的访问量在10次或者10次以上，这表明只有小部分但非常有价值的用户愿意持续访问一款好的应用。

游戏邦认为，开发商应该关注这一用户群体，虽然这类用户数量并不多，但他们的规模会随时间的发展而不断壮大，带来更可观的营收。开发商很难通过“一次性用户”实现广告或者虚拟商品营收，但却可以在回头用户身上实现这一点，而且这些用户对付费服务的消费意愿也更高。

应用开发商最好能够像Facebook社交游戏开发商一样，以月活跃用户和日活跃用户作为标准参数，考察游戏用户的黏性。同时也有不少人希望了解更多关于用户访问频率和访问时间长度，以及过了某段时间后还有多少用户会继续使用该应用的情况。这其中可能会存在一些不确定的因素，因为应用覆盖的范围太广，有的是速战速决的游戏，而有的则是用户每天都会访问的新闻和信息应用。但是如果这些数据能够在各自类别中进行规范，那就可以更好地说明某个应用的用户留存率，说明开发商吸引的究竟是回头客，还是一次性用户。

移动分析公司Flurry的营销副总裁皮特·法拉戈（Peter Farago）曾表示，许多公司已非常熟悉日活跃用户这一概念，因为Flurry就是通过这些数据来分析他们的产品市场表现。开发商也开始投入更多时间分析他们的应用情况，追踪更多数据来考察哪些应用产品的用户黏性更高，哪些则更少。但是很多公司都没有达成这种共识，因为他们认为下载量更浅显易懂，而且从数据上来看更有吸引力。但游戏邦认为下载量其实会掩盖应用或者项目运营的非健康状态。

他表示，“这就和水桶一样，只要水桶没破，你就可以往里盛水。应用如果设计得不好，或者寿命很短，开发商就不能很好地留住和户。开发商可以通过花钱收买用户，举办新闻发布会来弥补这一点，但最终只会发现自己白花了许多冤枉钱。”

Localytics营销副总裁Brian Suthoff认为，开发商不要一味注重下载量，而是应该专心培养自己的回头客。这个目标很明确，但需要付出很多心血。Suthoff还表示，Localytics目前正致力于创建一个反映应用健康指数的服务，以帮助开发商了解其应用在用户黏性和忠诚度方面的表现如何。

Suthoff表示，“我们鼓励开发商不要拘泥于下载量，要分析用户的访问次数，哪些用户访问了5、10次，哪些用户访问了20、100次，看看要如何让更多用户喜欢自己的应用，并了解用户喜欢应用的哪些方面？”

目前有些开发商会分享应用的用户黏性。上周游戏开发商Playforge工作室就表示，《僵尸农场》（去年苹果App Store上的热门免费游戏之一）在不到1年的时间里，下载量就达到1100万。但更值得关注的是，《僵尸农场》1个月后的用户留存率仍高达40%，而1年后的用户留存率也超过10%。而Flurry调查总结出的行业标准则是：1个月后，用户留存率为19%；而3个月后，用户留存率则不到5%。在过去2个月中，《僵尸农场》用户平均每天访问游戏3.6次，这一频率是Flurry行业标准的2倍。

这是很有价值的信息，同时也说明采用新数据来衡量游戏表现是很可行的做法，应该鼓励应用行业多收集此类信息。其实大部分的开发商都有收集这类数据，只是这种现象还不够多。相信很多开发商很快就会开始采取行动。真正能反映用户黏性的数据具有启发意义，不会含有浮夸成份。但如果行业巨头能够起先锋作用，那么这一操作也会很快成为约定俗成的行业标准。手机应用领域已经取得了巨大的成功，在不到3年内就发展成一股新势力。苹果应用商店App Store自2008年上线以来，也已经创下了100亿次下载量。但此时的开发商若要获得更圆满的成功，他们的应用就不能空有下载量，而是要真正成为人们日常生活的一部分。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Please, App Makers, Give Me More Than Download Stats

It seems I get a daily email boasting about an app and its millions of downloads. It starts to feel like a game of one-upmanship, as startups jockey for bragging rights over the maximum number of downloads in the shortest amount of time

On one hand, I think it’s great to see apps thriving and startups coming out of nowhere with encouraging success stories. But at the same time, I’m starting to get tired of — and a little skeptical about — these numbers. Yes, saying you can get millions of downloads is noteworthy, but what I want to hear is how many of these users are still around in a week, a month, after six months, and how often are they engaging? Basically, I want more information than a simple download number can give.

Downloads are one-time events that can be pumped up through legitimate viral channels, good reviews and shout-outs by well-known people. But it can also be done through marketing online and in-app advertising, which can call into question the value of those users if they’re responding to ads rather showing genuine interest. And now with more alternative payment options available, in which an app user can get virtual goods or currency in a game by downloading an app, it makes the download numbers even more fuzzy. I’m not saying the metric is worthless or marketing isn’t legitimate, but downloads can pumped up in a number of ways. What is harder to game is real engagement over time.

That’s what I’m hoping to see more from developers. Instead of flashy numbers, show me user loyalty. Everything else is churn. By sticking with download numbers, I wonder how many are masking the fact that most of their users don’t come back at all. A study by Localytics highlighted this reality last month when it reported that 26 percent of apps were only opened once and then ignored. An even higher percentage of apps are only opened up two to five times. On the plus side, Localytics says 26 percent of users return to an app 10 or more times,which suggests there’s a smaller but significant number of robust users willing to stick with a good app.

This is the group developers should be focusing on. And while it’s a more modest number, those remaining users are more impressive over time and more lucrative. You can’t monetize a one-time visitor through ads or virtual goods, but a repeat visitor opens the opportunity for both those opportunities as well as the chance to upsell them on premium services.

It makes me wish app developers shared a more standardized metric like social game makers do on Facebook, who report monthly and daily active users. I’d also like to see more information on session frequency and lengths and how many people are still using an app after a certain amount of time. That might be a little problematic because apps span the gamut, from quick-play games to utilities that are occasionally used to news and information apps that often get daily usage. But if the data was more standardized, at least within categories, that would show how many users are remaining with an app and would demonstrate a developer is actually doing something right, not just getting people in the door.

I talked with Peter Farago, VP of marketing for mobile analytics firm Flurry, who said many developers are already familiar with metrics like daily active user numbers because it’s something they measure through Flurry. Developers are also increasingly spending more time analyzing their apps, tracking more events to understand where users are engaging and where they drop off. But many don’t share this information because downloads numbers are easier to explain and sexier because of their size. But it can hide that an app or a business is fundamentally unhealthy.

“It’s like a bucket; you can pour in water but if you have a hole, and the app is not well designed or has a short shelf life, you can’t hold on to that large audience,” he said. “Developers could buy users and put out a press release, but eventually you’ll run out of money.”

Brian Suthoff, VP of marketing for Localytics said he encourages developers to move past download numbers and focus on building up repeat users. It’s an obvious goal, but something that bears emphasizing. Suthoff said Localytics is working on creating an app health index to help developers understand how their app is doing in engagement and loyalty.

“We encourage developers to go beyond (downloads), and now understand who uses the app 5, 10, 20, 100 times,” Suthoff said. “How do you find more people like them and what do they like about the app?”

Now there are developers who share engagement information. Game developer Playforge announced last week that Zombie Farm, one of the top freemium game titles in Apple’s App Store last year, hit 11 million downloads in just under a year. But more impressive was that Zombie Farm retained 40 percent of its players after a month and more than 10 percent of users who started playing a year ago.

Compare that to Flurry’s industry benchmarks, which indicates that 19 percent of players hold on after one month and less than 5 percent stick with games after 90 days. Over the last two months, the Zombie Farm users also averaged 3.6 sessions a day, double Flurry’s benchmark for games.

This is good granular information and shows that it can be done. The app industry just needs to encourage more of it. Most developers are already gathering the data; we just need to see it more often. I doubt many will start any time soon. The real engagement numbers can be very revealing and humbling. But if we can get some leaders to be more vocal, we can encourage the industry to share this information more readily. The mobile app economy is a huge success, growing into a juggernaut in less than three years. Apple has recorded more than 10 billion downloads since opening its store in 2008. But we’re now at the point where developers need to tell a fuller story: how their apps aren’t just snagging downloads, but how they’re part of people’s everyday lives. （Source：gigaom）