Appnext Revolutionizes App Discovery in India: Prioritizing Native Language Recommendations
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Danny Tuttnauer, COO at Appnext, Affle
How does Appnext collaborate with mobile OEMs to enhance app discovery and user experience on their devices?
Our partnerships with mobile manufacturers are crucial to achieving our mission of offering the best app discovery experience. These collaborations enable users to effortlessly find the apps and services they need, precisely when they need them and in contexts that matter to them. At the same time, these partnerships allow device manufacturers to maintain continuous engagement with their users. Our approach includes several strategies, from providing a personalized onboarding experience for new device setup to creating a customized, ‘always-on’ discovery hub. This hub offers direct access to OEM-specific apps and services, along with easy access to the most used apps, and extends to enhancing the OEM app store itself. We design these solutions to be intuitive and readily accessible, ensuring users can seamlessly discover new and relevant apps that integrate smoothly with their device experience.
In what ways does Appnext contribute to improving the out-of-box experience for smartphone users through app integration and recommendations?
Our Out-of-Box-Experience solution kickstarts the device-level engagement, which begins a holistic discovery journey. By focusing on the moment of device setup and initial exploration, we tap into a critical time when users are most open to customizing their devices and discovering new apps and services that suit their interests and needs. This initial stage proves crucial in setting the tone for a user’s long-term engagement with their device. By concentrating on this onboarding moment, we ensure that users have a smooth start without feeling overwhelmed by unnecessary options. The careful curation and timing of these personal recommendations mean that users are more likely to perceive them as valuable additions rather than interruptions, thereby increasing the likelihood of adoption and re-engagement.
We also improved the out-of-box experience by offering app discovery through various touchpoints during and beyond the initial setup. For example, smart folders offer users the ease and complete control to organize their apps within a dedicated category folder. In addition, branded and customized widgets provide continuous personalized app suggestions, quick access to OEM’s apps and services, and shortcuts to frequently used apps. This ongoing engagement makes smartphones a dynamic and personalized extension of their user, allowing manufacturers to consistently engage with their customers.
Could you share insights into the current state of the app economy in India and how Appnext is positioned within this landscape?
The app economy in India is experiencing a period of explosive growth and transformation, which is exciting to watch. It’s being driven by a few factors, including smartphone adoption via a wave of affordable smartphones, increasing internet penetration, availability of 5G data at cheap data packs, and the emergence of a young, tech-savvy population that is eager to embrace digital solutions. India is an important market that has huge opportunities for developers who take the right approach and deploy the best marketing strategies.
We’re tapping this market, leading the app discovery solutions for advertisers with our platform in India. Our solutions provide a unique service that bridges the gap between app developers and users. Our personalized approach to app discovery is particularly crucial in a diverse market like India, where users’ preferences and digital needs vary widely across different regions and demographics.
How does Appnext help developers address the diverse needs and preferences of users within the Indian app market?
Addressing the wide-ranging needs and preferences of users in a diverse market is crucial for any technology provider. As in any country with a rich diversity of languages, localization is important as is tailoring your product to meet the specific needs of the market. Given the mobile-first/mobile-only nature of many users in India, there are lots of opportunities for creative developers and we are here to help them reach the right audience. We use a combination of deep market understanding, localized content strategies, and advanced personalization technologies. This multifaceted approach ensures we cater to the unique and varied demands of the Indian user base, which is characterized by its linguistic diversity, regional differences, and varied digital habits.
India has over 20 officially recognized languages and hundreds of dialects. Appnext’s technology is designed to adapt to this linguistic diversity, offering app recommendations in the language of choice. This not only makes the app discovery process more accessible but also more relevant to users who prefer to use their mobile in their native language. By prioritizing localization, Appnext ensures that its customers across different regions of India deliver app suggestions that are not just contextually relevant but also linguistically accessible.
Our strategy in India has also involved closely working with local developers who create apps that cater specifically to the Indian market, whether it’s regional entertainment, local news, or apps designed for India-specific services (“Make in India”, “Digital India” initiatives).
What trends do you observe at the smartphone/device level that impact app discovery and usage patterns, and how does Appnext adapt to these trends?
The smartphone and device landscape is constantly evolving, with new trends emerging that significantly impact app discovery and usage patterns. Two key trends stand out in the current landscape: the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in personalization and the growing preference for regional and vernacular content.
First, the integration of AI and ML technologies in smartphones is revolutionizing how apps are recommended to users. These technologies enable more sophisticated analysis of user behavior, preferences, and context, allowing for highly personalized app recommendations. Appnext leverages AI and ML to refine the recommendation algorithms continually, ensuring that the apps suggested to users are the ones they’re most likely to find useful and engaging. This personalization extends beyond just analyzing past app usage, incorporating real-time data like location, time of day, and current device usage patterns to deliver relevant recommendations that match the user’s immediate context and needs.
Second, with high demand for regional and vernacular content, smartphone users in India typically look for apps that cater to their local needs, whether it’s in terms of language, culture, or services. Our solutions adapt to this trend by enhancing localization capabilities, enabling our customers to deliver app recommendations that are relevant to users’ linguistic and regional preferences.
Third, mobile-first behaviors, particularly in sectors like FinTech, where UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments have become prevalent, have demonstrated the necessity for app discovery platforms to adapt by prioritizing apps that facilitate these behaviors. This adaptation not only aligns with user behavior trends but also fosters an ecosystem where users can more easily discover apps that enhance their daily lives through convenient, mobile-first services.
Finally, I would say that the entire smartphone market is transforming. Manufacturers are responding to the user demand for a broad spectrum of device options across various budget points, which has democratized access to mobile technology and therefore enhanced opportunities for app discovery.
