ARC 360 Report •• Dec. 2014

THE STATE OF THE U.S. MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APPS ECONOMYAnalyzing the state of Android and iOS app quality in the media & entertainment industry.

By Ben Gray

Executive Summary:

ow do your customers in the U.S. rate the quality of your Android

and iOS media & entertainment apps? This report answers that

question and provides IT, product and marketing leaders with a

benchmark of the quality of mobile apps across 67 of the most popular

media & entertainment brands, including Flipboard, Instagram, Netflix,

Pandora, Snapchat, Spotify and YouTube, and 5 industries, including

Media & Entertainment, Music & Audio and Photography. Read on to

discover the highest and lowest rated media & entertainment brands

and industries. IT, product and marketing leaders should use this report

to understand how customers rate your mobile app quality, assess your

competitive landscape and set goals for optimizing your app quality

management practices in 2015 as you proceed along the path to a

winning media & entertainment app, as defined by your customers.

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The State Of The U.S. Media Apps Economy

Until last month, no one had attempted to document the state of app

quality across the modern apps economy. Until then, no one had the

tools to measure customer sentiment as channeled through app store

ratings and reviews. Until then, brands were flying blind on what

customers love and hate about your mobile apps and lacked an open

benchmark with which to compare your app quality against your

competitors’.

Introducing ARC 360’s Media Report

Applause, the 360º app quality company, has commissioned this ARC 360

report on the state of the U.S. media & entertainment apps economy

to help the world’s most popular media & entertainment brands in

the U.S.—and those that compete against them—to understand how

customers perceive your app quality and to rapidly improve the

experience for your mobile users. Last month, we launched Retail and

Travel editions, with plans to release updates and additional industry

editions in subsequent months.

Research Methodology

To build the media & entertainment app quality index, ARC 360:

■ Started with the list of 48,640 media & entertainment apps housed with-in the two most popular U.S. app stores—Google Play and Apple App Store. Google Play media & entertainment categories include Books & Reference,

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Comics, Entertainment, Media & Video, Music & Audio, News & Magazines and Photography while Apple App Store media & entertainment categories include Books, Entertainment, Music, News, Photo & Video and Reference.

■ Consolidated similar app store categories, which resulted in Books & Ref-erence (includes Books & Reference, Comics, Books and Reference), Media & Entertainment (includes Entertainment (both Google Play and Apple App Store) and Media & Video), Music & Audio (includes Music & Audio and Mu-sic), News & Magazines (includes News & Magazines, News and Newsstand) and Photography (includes Photography and Photo & Video).

■ Sorted the apps by number of user reviews and determined a minimum number for inclusion that varied by category. In ascending order the mini-mum number of user reviews is: 15K (News & Entertainment), 19K (Books & Magazines), 30K (Photography), 40K (Music & Audio) and 50K (Media & Entertainment).

■ Analyzed the quality of the apps using Applause Analytics, a mobile app analytics tool that crawls every rating and review from the top apps stores, including Google Play and Apple App Store. Applause Analytics reports a mobile app quality score, as defined by customers, on a scale of 0 to 100.

The Media Apps Economy Spans 5 Categories

Sixty-seven media & entertainment apps

qualified for the inaugural Applause media

& entertainment app quality index. The

distribution of average app quality scores

varied across 5 media & entertainment

categories, with Books & Reference

averaging the highest score (72) and Media

& Entertainment rounding out the list with

a 58 average. Here’s how customers rated the 5 media & entertainment

categories within today’s modern apps economy (see Figure 1):3

APP TRENDS:

Did you know that across

more than 200 million

apps in the U.S. app

stores, the average app

quality score is 66.5? In

other words, a “D” - a

passing grade but nothing

to write home about.

Defining The App Quality Scale

Across each of the 5 media & entertainment categories, Applause

measured the app quality sentiment of Android and iOS users and

plotted the resulting app quality scores as defined by customers on a

scale of: Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent and Winning. For each of these

classifications, media & entertainment app quality scores ranged from:

■ Poor: 0 to 39 (apps with which customers are disappointed)

■ Fair: 40 to 59 (apps customers tolerate because they serve a purpose)

■ Good: 60 to 69 (apps that customers like)

■ Excellent: 70 to 89 (apps that customers love)

■ Winning: 90 to 100 (apps that win customers’ applause)

The Good,The Bad And The Ugly

Some customers’ ratings of media & entertainment apps really stood

out, for both good and bad reasons (see Figure 2). Some of the best

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figure 1

SOURCE: APPLAUSE ANALYTICS, DECEMBER 7, 2014

Books & ReferencePhotography

News & MagazinesMedia & Entertainment

Music & Audio

7268605958

POOR FAIR GOOD EXCELLENT WINNING

100908070605040300 10 20

APPLAUSE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APP QUALITY INDEX - MIN, AVG & MAX SCORE

AVERAGESCORE

and worst media & entertainment brands for app quality as defined by

their customers include:

■ Seven insanely popular apps achieved elite app quality status: Photo Grid by Cheetah Mobile [Android|iOS], Bible by LifeChurch.tv [Android|iOS], Dictionary.com [Android|iOS], PicsArt Photo Studio [Android|iOS], Spotify Music [Android|iOS] and Wattpad [Android|iOS]. Each of these apps earned average app quality scores across Android and iOS above 70 that stood the test of more than 100,000 user reviews.

■ Eight apps achieved Android app quality scores of 85 or higher: Quran Android [Android], Drippler [Android], TheFreeDictionary.com [Android], Offline English Dictionary [Android], Logos Bible [Android], Pixlr by Au-todesk [Android], Photo Grid by Cheetah Mobile [Android] and Pocket [An-droid].

■ Eight apps achieved iOS app quality scores of 86 or higher: Bible.is [iOS], Drippler [iOS], Bible by LifeChurch.tv [iOS], TheFreeDictionary.com [iOS], Text Camera [iOS], Pic Collage [iOS], Photo Grid by Cheetah Mobile [iOS] and Pocket [iOS].

■ Three hugely popular apps need to live up to higher expectations by their customers: YouTube [Android|iOS], Netflix [Android|iOS] and Snap-chat [Android|iOS]. These brands earned average app quality scores below 40 against more than 175K reviews. Due to the popularity and large install bases of these apps, it’s important for these apps to not just work, but work well. Any faults will be picked up by users who feel that large apps with resources should perform better. In particular, these apps were saw low elegance, security and privacy attribute scores, suggesting the need to eval-uate the usability and security of these apps to boost the users’ perceptions around attributes.

■ Six bellwether media apps performed poorly with their users: CNN [Android], The New York Times [Android], The Wall Street Journal [An-droid], iBooks by Apple [iOS], SoundCloud [iOS] and Vine [Android].These are top brands with massive user bases who have high expecta-tions. These media brands should assess what app quality means within their roadmaps, and to their users, and then define a corrective approach to better serve users in their mobile moments (see Recommendations).

5

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MX Player by J2 InteractiveFandango Movies

Action Movie FXµTorrent by BitTorrent

IMDBStumbleUpon

theCHIVEEarn Talktime

NetflixYouTube by Google

141,57220,736

N/A130,433

19,33722,21042,38861,450

121,467255,497

N/A71,310

63,489N/A

55,54852,39566,479

N/A59,97185,433

79*7674**73*72685655*3726

POOR FAIR GOOD EXCELLENT WINNING

100908070605040300 10 20

APPLAUSE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APP QUALITY INDEX - MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT SCORE

AVERAGESCORE

*ANDROID ONLY**IOS ONLYSOURCE: APPLAUSE ANALYTICS, DECEMBER 7, 2014

ANDROIDREVIEWS

IOSREVIEWS

figure 2

Bible.isQuran Android

TheFreeDictionary.comOffline English Dictionary

Logos BibleEnglish Hindi Dictionary

Dictionary by Merriam-WebsterBible by LifeChurch.tv

Dictionary.comWhitepages

WattpadNook by Barnes & Nobles

AudibleAmazon Kindle

iBooks by AppleGoogle Play Books

N/A23,521

26,29921,9628,372

21,83932,04960,21675,940

9,35885,00124,20817,076

34,800N/A

27,397

34,847N/A

9,665N/A

20,396N/A

6,904343,71753,34620,25156,21612,47827,93615,155

19,3631,414

91**91*8986*8682*818180787465654537**35

POOR FAIR GOOD EXCELLENT WINNING

100908070605040300 10 20

APPLAUSE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APP QUALITY INDEX - BOOKS & REFERENCE SCORE

AVERAGESCORE

*ANDROID ONLY**IOS ONLYSOURCE: APPLAUSE ANALYTICS, DECEMBER 7, 2014

ANDROIDREVIEWS

IOSREVIEWS

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DripplerPocket

reddit is funFlipboard

FeedlyNewsHunt

LinkedIn PulseFox News

The Times of IndiaAP Mobile

ZinioThe New York Times

The Wall Street JournalCNN

Google Play Newsstand

33,70921,80231,98364,29329,13943,19311,09316,42943,164

7,8317,8837,3866,121

20,94816,402

1,1019,765

N/A33,72715,791

11220,210

19,1121,383

16,36417,92356,19315,185

56,575N/A

908683*797464585652524944413935*

POOR FAIR GOOD EXCELLENT WINNING

100908070605040300 10 20

APPLAUSE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APP QUALITY INDEX - NEWS & MAGAZINES SCORE

AVERAGESCORE

*ANDROID ONLYSOURCE: APPLAUSE ANALYTICS, DECEMBER 7, 2014

ANDROIDREVIEWS

IOSREVIEWS

Spotify MusiciHeartRadio

TuneInPandora

Magic Piano by SmuleSoundCloud

Google Play Music

127,74296,29134,207

110,70235,95447,614

92,300

168,53856,55345,546

197,87354,96527,106

1,704

74656456564845

POOR FAIR GOOD EXCELLENT WINNING

100908070605040300 10 20

APPLAUSE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APP QUALITY INDEX - MUSIC & AUDIO SCORE

AVERAGESCORE

SOURCE: APPLAUSE ANALYTICS, DECEMBER 7, 2014

ANDROIDREVIEWS

IOSREVIEWS

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Text CameraPhoto Grid by Cheetah Mobile

Pic CollagePhoto Editor by Aviary

PicsArt Photo StudioPixlr by Autodesk

Camera360 Ultimate by PinGuoFlipagram

MagistoPicLabRetrica

KeepSafeInstagram

Split PicPiclay

Photo Editor ProCymera

VineSnapchat

N/A153,422

44,10149,272

149,76441,689

86,46059,88547,253

6,05160,10475,244

835,7011,401

71838,46540,13653,701

214,642

45,4197,439

43,02222,3716,242

7226,081

24,0999,728

59,4843,0428,418

51,45141,88630,365

272193

37,48276,986

89**868581797574747370696866625755545239

POOR FAIR GOOD EXCELLENT WINNING

100908070605040300 10 20

APPLAUSE MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT APP QUALITY INDEX - PHOTOGRAPHY SCORE

AVERAGESCORE

**IOS ONLYSOURCE: APPLAUSE ANALYTICS, DECEMBER 7, 2014

ANDROIDREVIEWS

IOSREVIEWS

Every media & entertainment brand with an application in the Applause

app quality index is proceeding along its own path to a winning mobile

application. But whether they’re able to achieve winning status as rated

by their customers—not to mention retain that status over time—and

at what rate they earn it really depends on where they landed in the

app quality index.

■ MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS WITH APPS RATED AS POOR need to fundamentally refocus their efforts on serving customers in their mobile moments, because if your app doesn’t serve customer needs in their every-day interactions then prepare to sit back and watch as your competitors do. From discovering breaking news, to listening to the top songs, to preserving moments with friends, to researching a book, to binge watching your favor-ite TV series, your apps have to work every time, for everyone, across every device, OS, network and location. Now is the perfect time to rethink your development and testing strategy in the age of the customer.

■ MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS WITH APPS RATED AS FAIR need to expand testing out of the lab and into the real world, where conditions can disrupt the user experience. Too many media & entertainment compa-nies test almost exclusively in an internal test lab or via a traditional out-sourced model, which simply relocates the test lab, and rely too heavily on automation, which offers few answers for real world challenges. But win-ning mobile apps demand additional testing where users naturally interact with your digital experiences.

■ MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS WITH APPS RATED AS GOOD should expand their development and testing efforts from functional to us-ability, localization, load/performance and security. Because today’s user expectations are incredibly lofty, your apps have to do more than work. They have to be intuitive, offer rock solid stability, perform quickly, shine

RECOMMENDATIONSThe Path To Winning Apps, As Defined By Customers

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under pressure and keep your customer information secure and private. But the number 1 goal of your apps is to delight your users—when and where they want to interact with your brand. Your apps need to drive re-peat usage, deeper engagement and user loyalty for your brand and your business. Because even a free app has implications on your business and your reputation.

■ MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS WITH APPS RATED AS EXCELLENT should engage early with users on new builds as a means of identifying is-sues before your customers do and to narrow future testing efforts on the most urgent issues that are preventing them from achieving winning app quality status. As an example, most of the indexed media & entertainment apps faired poorly on elegance, security, privacy and stability (versus sat-isfaction, content, interoperability, performance or pricing, for example). Many of these brands could immediately benefit from usability, security and automated mobile functional testing to turn their most glaring app quality weaknesses into strengths.

■ MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS WITH APPS RATED AS WINNING must monitor ongoing user feedback to improve over time. Whether users love or hate your apps, they’re going to be incredibly vocal via social chan-nels and app store ratings and reviews—as evidenced by this report. There’s no clearer voice of the customer than the one that’s already shouting at you with app store ratings and reviews from your most passionate fans and crit-ics alike. For any media & entertainment brand that wants to improve its app quality standing through the eyes of its customers—and we hope that’s all of them—it’s important to listen to and act on customer feedback.

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About ARC 360

ARC 360 from Applause is a research group dedicated to providing

insights and data on the apps economy. ARC 360 leverages data from

a variety of sources, including proprietary Applause data, to provide

a 360º view of app quality. ARC 360 combines this data, with analysis,

into reports to help brands and app developers understand what is

happening in the apps economy.

Learn more at http://arc.applause.com/.

About Applause Analytics

Combing through millions of ratings and user reviews submitted across

millions of apps in the Android and iOS app stores around the world,

Applause Analytics closes the gap between mobile app developers and

their customers, generating actionable insights and quantifiable metrics

based on what users are actually saying about their app experiences.

Learn more at www.applause.com/analytics.

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