The Chatbot hype versus the App reality!
A lot of insurers we talk to are thinking about the right channels to use. In this discussion, we also often hear that people believe that the “App Hype” is over… and that they want to bet on new channels like chat bots. But developments in these two areas show that the opposite should be considered!
Apps:
According to a recent study by app market data and insights company App Annie, download across the two major app stores reached nearly 26 billion worldwide. This is up more than 8% over the same time last year. This number is just new downloads and doesn’t include reinstalls or app updates.
But not just the downloads of apps increased, the app revenue reached a record of nearly $17 billion. Much of the growth is coming from emerging markets where smartphone penetration is still relatively low.
Google Play:
The growth in the Google Play store is fuelled by emerging markets. Downloads nearly doubled from Q3 2016 to Q3 2017.
iOS:
The download growth for iOS was up 8% from last quarter. This is the highest growth rate since Q1 2016.
Consumer spend is also still growing. The revenue from iOS and Google Play combined is up to 28% over the year prior. iOS is leading the app revenue growth here and China is the largest market overall for consumer spend.
Entertainment apps (especially video streaming apps) could capture the most of consumers’ time and attention. With 30% up in quarter over quarter spend on iOS and 45% on Google Play.
App Annie forecasts that the worldwide download will reach nearly 240 billion and consumer spend will top $100 billion by 2021.
Chatbots:
Facebook is allowing developers to add in-app purchases as well as interstitial and rewarded video ads. Players get a virtual good or bonus life in exchange for watching rewarded videos.
Facebook will take a cut of the ads shown in Messenger games (that are routed from its Facebook Audience Network).
This move should attract higher-quality games to the Messenger platform, ans until now, devs could only hope to build an audience and monetise down the line.
Facebook seems to be taking Messenger Instant Games quite seriously at the moment. They see an opportunity to not only give people something to do between chat conversations and a way to challenge friends, but also now to start squeezing more cash out of the 1.3 billion Messenger users without interrupting the traditional use cases as its inbox ads do.
Messenger has had some missteps these past few years, with a half-baked roll out of bots that left many feeling they were dysfunctional, and a retreat from a redesign that over-prioritized the Messenger Camera. Facebook says Messenger Day has 70 million daily active users, but that means it has grown much slower than Instagram Stories. Both bots and stories were potential vectors for monetization and now Facebook is looking elsewhere for revenue streams.
What does it mean?
The app market reached unbelievable dimensions. Dimensions people could not even think about a few years ago. The numbers by AppAnnie show that this trend is still contuining and the predictions show even more growth in the next years.
On the other hand, Facebook messenger bots couldn’t gain traction and failed to deliver on their promises. Facebook is looking for other revenue streams to monetize the Messenger product.
It is hard to predict, where the topic chatbots is heading. But it is not hard to see where Apps are heading. The app hype is still alive and will create massive growth over the next years.
