Can Mobile App Discovery Be Fixed?

Arie Abecassis is co-founder of the recently launched AppStori and a Venture Partner at DreamIt Ventures. He's been actively involved in the New York tech community as an entrepreneur and investor, and currently sits on the boards of SeatGeek, Adaptly and BiznessApps.

In the last few years the growth of smart devices has exploded. As a result, there are now more than one million active apps. Other drivers that are contributing to app growth include the standardization of development tools, decreasing technology costs, and increased investment in mobile platforms.

As recent entrants like Amazon and Facebook try to stake their claim in the mobile market, the ability to discover an app that doesn't somehow make its way onto a top-ten list continues to be an issue. So how's the marketplace attempting to address that problem? In short, primarily through a variety of supply-side and demand-side solutions. Here's what those look like.  

• Search Engines: A handful of startups have tried and continue to develop search engines for mobile apps including Chomp, which was recently acquired by Apple. For vertical search engines to be effective, they must offer integrity, comprehensiveness, personalization, and be well-branded. In addition, search generally makes the "rich, richer" and the rest remain unknown. So unless an app already has accelerated download activity, is part of a "sponsored" listing, or can trigger an algorithm, search seems limited in its ability to surface an amazing app that has a limited marketing budget.

• Distribution Platforms: Many distribution platforms have emerged to get around the walled garden, and subjective nature of the major app stores. There are mega portals, such as the one Facebook recently announced, as well as industry-specific portals that are trying to tackle the problem by focusing on certain themes or segments. While these outlets can be powerful in getting a consumer app on the map, it comes at a steep economic price, usually through aggressive revenue sharing. In mobile games, content creators like Rovio and Zynga have their eyes on the distribution business. For app developers, this opens up potential questions about neutrality.

• Recommendation Algorithms: A rather novel approach that's emerged has been to enable app discovery by mapping app preferences using a user's social graph and those of his or her friends. The theory is that shared psychographic interests will yield shared interests in apps. As an app stores make their APIs/feeds open to the public and as these are integrated with social data, the promise of discovering compelling and relevant apps, is there. The underlying challenge is relevance. If you are friends with a Yankees fan, and he downloads an amazing Yankee app, you're intrigued. However, if he downloads an app on bunions, perhaps not so much.

• Developer Marketing Tools: An active area in mobile investing has been targeted at arming developers with paid tools to better market their apps. This has included e-commerce enablement, social media marketing tools, as well as cost-per installation ad networks. Many of these platforms can be useful and helpful to cut through the clutter, but they favor app teams or studios with small war chests.

So, there's no shortage of diversity when it comes to identifying a solution. However, the fundamental problem still persists. For most apps, it's difficult and costly to develop mindshare when an app is launching with thousands of other new apps every week.

But what if an app developer could build a relationship with users much closer to the point of app creation? What if there were platforms designed to allow developers and consumers to collaborate very early in the creative process by providing consumers with a "vote" on the direction and potential success of apps. Historically, the process of app creation has been focused on a "build first, market later" mentality. This translates into two main challenges: How do I get the consumer to even notice me and download my app. And if they download my app, what level of confidence do I have that they'll like it and share it with their friends?
 
Earlier collaboration could translate into earlier engagement and earlier engagement could result in earlier user support and adoption. That could change the economics of customer acquisition and start shifting a little of the balance of power back to the development community. Here's how. 

• Early Market/Product Feedback: Developers can make more informed product decisions based on consumer preferences. After all, a well-researched product is more likely to receive a positive market reception. This is an age-old marketing practice where new products are put in front of potential customers, but instead of test marketers residing in some town in Ohio, developers gain the ability to showcase their apps to beta testers and early adopters. Because of the distribution problem (that web apps do not face), the stakes are higher for app developers to get the app right upon launch.

• Own and Build a Vested Fan Base: With earlier engagement, developers can empower their user base and get them vested in what they're doing. More importantly, they can continue to own the relationship and lessen the chances of becoming disintermediated by the many platforms cited above. It's interesting that most new apps today typically begin with a small base of fans. Instead as that serving as a foundation for building a broader community, momentum usually stalls, as consumer engagement tends to be sporadic and consumers resign themselves to waiting until it hits the app store.

• Develop a Following of "Appvocates": Since your best marketer is your customer, delivering an awesome app experience that they've been a part of since inception will more likely interest them in sharing your brand. The key is to make it easy for them to spread the word through whatever tools are available. Enabling advocacy through Facebook , Twitter, email and other low-cost communication tools can be highly effective. This is what Trivi.al, a gaming app that brings trivia and social together, has done successfully.

The time has come for easier discovery and greater empowerment for developers and consumers. At the moment, there are too many intermediaries and "toll takers". For visual proof of this, refer to the Lumascape mobile market map (warning: have aspirin handy). As the app economy evolves, we will continue to see rapid growth in apps, but also innovative solutions that will help flatten the layers that currently make app discovery such a chore.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto,