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Did you know: The average Android app loses 77% of its users in just 72 hours!

By Luis D.

Updated: Mar 04, 2016, 3:14 PM

28comments

Android Apps

App users are impatient! Also, sad frog is sad.

The competition between mobile apps for installs,, downloads and user retention has become cut-throat, with the age of "easy app store money" long behind our backs. The market has become so challenging that one of the prerequisites for sucess can be pretty much described as follows – to make sure that users fall in love with your app within 72 hours or less!

This is what Andrew Chen, a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and analyst, has concluded. A study he took in partnership with mobile intelligence startup Quettra concluded that the average Android app loses a disheartening 77% of its daily mobile users within the first three days of its launch. Using apps from the Google Play store (and excluding Google’s own apps) with over 10,000 downloads as the base for the study, Chen hypothesized that the first seven days after launch are crucial for an app's chances to retain users and be considered a success. According to the findings, the average app loses 90% of its daily mobile users within 30 days of the initial install, and 95% of users reject it outright after 90 days. Shocking, indeed!

the average app loses 90% of its daily mobile users within 30 days of the initial install.

Chen’s data also indicates another interesting tendency. The Retention rates among Google Play's top 100 apps show a drop off within the first 90 days after launch, with the speed of that drop off mirroring that of the average apps analyzed prior to that. Users actually find the top apps appealing in the first seven days, return to them repeatedly during that period, and then use them less over the next 90 days.

In other words, app developers must make sure that their creation's success is largely dependenton how a user interacts with it from the first minute post-install. Chen concludes that top apps retain users because they either have a 'wow' factor to them, or they integrate with mobile life to such an extent that they become essential, and not having access to them is unthinkable for users.

source: ARC

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Luis D. has a multitude of news, features and review articles written for PhoneArena. He adeptly demystifies complex technology topics, such as the development of advanced materials for bendable device displays and the evolution of chipset manufacturing.