Google Play Research WHAT YOU NEED to BUILD a KICKASS APP an Analysis of Android Apps in the Google Play Store
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Google Play Research WHAT YOU NEED TO BUILD A KICKASS APP An Analysis of Android Apps in the Google Play Store This analysis explores the following topics: In the past decade, mobile apps have become our daily App Popularity and Rating by Category: confidants. We share with them our health concerns and What are the most interesting app categories - communication, social, family, beauty, games, etc.? rely on them to get fit. We log our calories and sleep Does the number of downloads represent popularity and engagement? habits. We rely on them for transportation of all kinds and Which app categories are users most satisfied or dissatisfied with? Which are the most popular or highest rated apps by category? we count on them to entertain us with music, books, Which are the most popular apps by rating, downloads, willingness to pay, and app size in MB? and games. What influences satisfaction ratings? Popularity (number The Google Play Store had over 82 billion app downloads in 2016 and over 2.6 million apps of installs), number of reviews, app size or others? were published in 2018 (1). Mobile apps connect our virtual life and our real life. During the last decade, the use of apps for communication, information, and entertainment has increased Will we find correlations between popular app download numbers with app ratings (the higher worldwide, changing social interactions and supporting new forms of coordination and social app popularity the higher the app rating)? connections (2). Are there less noticed apps that have a high user rating but with fewer downloads? Do they have potential to grow? On the other hand, are there popular apps with lower or fewer We examined the distribution of app categories, to what extent users are satisfied with user ratings? their apps, and whether user satisfaction correlates with popularity in terms of download. Which factors are mostly related to an app’s ratings (satisfaction)? Furthermore, this analysis points to the indicators that influence users' satisfaction with apps. View our interactive dashboard for full visualization of the research data. 1 Methodology We located the most intriguing first-of-its-kind dataset on Kaggle (3) for Google Play Store Apps. In this analysis, we focused on 7,888 apps that had more than 1,000 installs 1 . Of those, 7,576 apps had a rating score. The dataset was last updated in September 2018. Current analysis on mobile apps has focused mainly on Apple Store data. However, this dataset focuses on mobile apps hosted and downloaded Content rating groups on Google Play are divided into 5 groups: from Google Play, the Android mobile app store. Everyone (6354 apps) The dataset includes the following fields: Teen (888 apps) Mature 17+ (341 apps) Everyone 10+ (306 apps) Adult only (3 apps) App Categories Number of app installs / downloads Whether the app is via Google Play Store on Android phones paid-for or free Size of the App (MB) App Rating Number of Reviews 1 Without duplicate apps 2 Analysis Variables 33 app categories (in alphabetical order) App rating value of category (adjusted average) ART AND DESIGN, AUTO AND VEHICLES, BEAUTY, BOOKS AND REFERENCE, BUSINESS, We multiplied the app rating with its number of reviewers and summed these results for COMICS, COMMUNICATION, DATING, EDUCATION, ENTERTAINMENT, EVENTS, FAMILY, all the apps in each category. This outcome was divided with accumulated number of all FINANCE, FOOD AND DRINK, GAME, HEALTH AND FITNESS, HOUSE AND HOME, the reviews in each category. LIBRARIES AND DEMO, MAPS AND NAVIGATION, MEDICAL, NEWS AND MAGAZINES, PARENTING, PERSONALIZATION, PHOTOGRAPHY, PRODUCTIVITY, SHOPPING, SOCIAL, App rating rank (the lower the value, the higher rank, where 1= very high 2 ) SPORTS, TOOLS, TRAVEL AND LOCAL, VIDEO PLAYERS and WEATHER. 1. The app rating value 2. The number of reviews 13 app install groups If 2 apps had the same app rating value, the app with the higher number of reviews 13 install values with three popularity levels; received a higher rank than the other app. TOP popularity installs; 1 Billion +, 500 Million + 100 Million + MID popularity installs; 50 Million +,10 Million +, 5 Million + Apps by size (MB) LOW popularity installs; 1 Million +, 500K +, 100K+, 50K+, 10K+, 5K+, 1K+ The size of apps was between 1 MB, to 100 MB. Values with " Varies with device" App installs value in each category level (absolute value) were reduced from computing the average. This estimation value is an accumulation of all apps installs values (using the minimum value of the category) in a given category (For example, a category with 10 apps; 4 apps Paid-for vs. Free apps with 500 million installs + 3 apps of 50 million + 7 apps of 1 million installs = 2.157 Binary variable when paid-for = 1 and free = 0. billion installs of that category). App installs index of category levels (on scale of 0-10) We divided the findings into three parts. In the first stage, we identified types of apps by category, We ranked all 33 categories from the lowest absolute value, to the highest absolute value, installs, payment type and size. In the second part, we classified the app rating by users/reviewers. and ranked them from 0 to 10. The category with a 0 value had fewer apps in the category Finally, we explored the differences in app rating by app type – Categories, Installs, Payment and very low app installs. The category with a 10 value had many apps in the category, type, and Size. and the highest absolute app installs. 2 Ranking only apps with more than 300 reviews 3 Main Findings Number of apps: Reviews and app ratings: Overall, the Google Play store dataset had 7,888 apps (we analyzed only apps that had more 20.9 billion reviews were given for these app installs, and a high rating was reported for the apps, than 1000 installs per app) in 33 categories of interest. The categories of apps with the highest 4.40, on scale of 1-5, when 5= very high. The top 5 app categories with the highest app ratings numbers of apps were Family (19% of all apps), Games (11% of apps), and Tools (9% of apps). are in the Medical category (4.62 rating), Education (4.60), Parenting (4.60), Health and Fitness Following these were the Finance and Productivity categories with 4% of overall apps (per each). (4.57), and Tools (4.54). At the bottom of app ratings are Libraries and Demos (4.08 rating), Dating (4.17) and Events (4.18). App installs: These 7,888 apps had 75 billion installs via Android around the world. In the installs index (0-10, very high), we found 3 categories with a value of 10 (10=top value); Games with 13.9 billion installs (18.5% of all installs), Communication with 11 billion installs (14.6%) and Tools with 8.1 billion (10.8%). These three categories (top 10 value) constitute 44% of all app installs in 33 categories. The second level, Value 9 on the installs index, includes Productivity apps with 5.8 billion installs (7.7%), Social apps with 5.5 billion installs (7.3%), and Photography apps with 4.7 billion installs (6.2%). This index value of 9 includes 21% of all app installs out of 33 categories of interest. The categories with a 9 - 10 installs index value make up 65% of all app installs in the Google Play Store. 4 Table A: Summary of the Number of Apps, Installs, Reviews, and Ratings by Category and Segment Number of Apps Installs Reviews Category Rating Number % of In % of Install (Index 0-10, Number of % of Value Category Rank Segment Category of Apps Apps Millions Installs 10=very high) Reviews in Millions Reviews (Scale 1-5, 5= high) (1-33, 1=highest) B MEDICAL 252 3% 39 0.1% 1 1.29 0% 4.62 1 B EDUCATION 119 2% 353 0.5% 3 13.37 1% 4.60 2 B PARENTING 58 1% 32 0.0% 0 0.96 0% 4.60 3 A HEALTH AND FITNESS 228 3% 1,144 1.5% 6 21.37 1% 4.57 4 A TOOLS 686 9% 8,113 10.8% 10 229.59 11% 4.54 5 A PERSONALIZATION 274 3% 1,532 2.0% 6 53.54 3% 4.51 6 A BOOKS AND REFERENCE 176 2% 1,666 2.2% 7 16.72 1% 4.50 7 B AUTO AND VEHICLES 67 1% 53 0.1% 2 1.16 0% 4.49 8 B ART AND DESIGN 62 1% 114 0.2% 2 1.42 0% 4.47 9 A GAME 890 11% 13,984 18.5% 10 624.20 30% 4.45 10 A SHOPPING 173 2% 1,410 1.9% 6 44.57 2% 4.45 11 A PRODUCTIVITY 281 4% 5,798 7.7% 9 55.60 3% 4.43 12 A PHOTOGRAPHY 254 3% 4,669 6.2% 9 105.68 5% 4.43 13 B HOUSE AND HOME 67 1% 97 0.1% 2 1.93 0% 4.41 14 B WEATHER 74 1% 361 0.5% 4 12.30 1% 4.41 15 A VIDEO PLAYERS 149 2% 3,927 5.2% 8 67.49 3% 4.40 16 B MAPS AND NAVIGATION 116 1% 503 0.7% 4 17.73 1% 4.40 17 D COMICS 54 1% 45 0.1% 1 2.34 0% 4.39 18 D FOOD AND DRINK 95 1% 212 0.3% 3 6.33 0% 4.38 19 D FINANCE 294 4% 455 0.6% 4 12.66 1% 4.38 20 C FAMILY 1,534 19% 4,438 5.9% 8 143.99 7% 4.37 21 C TRAVEL AND LOCAL 189 2% 2,895 3.8% 8 26.82 1% 4.36 22 5 Table A: Summary of the Number of Apps, Installs, Reviews, and Ratings by Category and Segment Number of Apps Installs Reviews Category Rating Number % of In % of Install (Index 0-10, Number of % of Value Category Rank Segment Category of Apps Apps Millions Installs 10=very high) Reviews in Millions Reviews (Scale 1-5, 5= high) (1-33, 1=highest) C SPORTS 253 3% 1,096 1.5% 5 35.35 2% 4.34 23 D BEAUTY 46 1% 27 0.0% 0 0.40 0% 4.32 24 C BUSINESS 230 3% 697 0.9% 5 9.89 0% 4.32 25 C LIFESTYLE 276 3% 504 0.7% 5 11.83 1% 4.32 26 C NEWS AND MAGAZINES 205 3% 2,369 3.1% 7 23.13 1% 4.30 27 C ENTERTAINMENT 102 1% 2,114 2.8% 7 34.77 2% 4.28 28 C COMMUNICATION 245 3% 11,039 14.6% 10 285.84 14% 4.28 29 C SOCIAL 198 3% 5,488 7.3% 9 227.94 11% 4.27 30 D EVENTS 40 1% 16 0.0% 0 0.16 0% 4.18 31 D DATING 123 2% 141 0.2% 3 3.62 0% 4.17 32 D LIBRARIES AND DEMO 78 1% 53 0.1% 1 0.91 0% 4.08 33 Total 7,888 100% 75,386 100.0% 2,094.89 100% 4.40 Categories of Interest Segmentation In this study we mapped the 33 app categories on two dimensions; app rating (on scale of 1-5, where 5= very high) and the installation index (on a scale of 0-10, where 0 = less than 100 thousand installs in the category, and 10= more than 8 billion app installs in the category) into 4 segments A, B, C, and D.