On Nov 29, 2011 was released the first version beta of BilbaoBus, our first professional job (after our dear Archer Master).
Many hours, efforts, discussions and pizzas were spent until we had it on the Market (yes, Google Play was known as Market yet :-P).
In the last 5 months we have accumulated a lot of experiences and we would like to share them with you and as always receive feedback.
Many hours, efforts, discussions and pizzas were spent until we had it on the Market (yes, Google Play was known as Market yet :-P).
In the last 5 months we have accumulated a lot of experiences and we would like to share them with you and as always receive feedback.
Statistics
Below you can find the evolution from Nov 29, 11 to Apr 29, 12. Total users vs active users. Daily and monthly installs.
At the first blush the numbers could seem not very significant but taking into account the market conditions we are very happy with the results and believe they are a great success.
When we uploaded BilbaoBus to the market it wasn't the first app for Bilbao Urban Transport. It even existed an official app from Bilbao Council (with more than 75.000 downloads) but the truth is that it wasn't a real app for Android (it was a Java app compatible, but not specific for any platform). Also, in January of this year the council raised an iPhone app.
Our budget for publicity was 0 €. It doesn't mean we didn't run marketing actions, on the contrary we did a very big effort in social networks and in the local media (in this case we didn't pressure to global Bloggers because our app was focus on local people and tourist).
Ok, let's go with statistics and discuss them below.
We can see in the charts above very interesting information.
The line that shows the installations is quit straight, it means that daily installs are regular. Looking to the daily installs chart we see that it's not totally on that way. During the first 2 months we had significant differences. It's normal we hadn't too many installs during the 2-3 first weeks due to nobody knew us, our rate didn't exist yet and this kind of local transport app is quite specific, it's not like a game that 1 week later has been posted in China and USA blogs...
Also, it's funny to see our download record on Jan 2. You are probably wondering what happened. We delayed a couple of days to discover it. We were stunned, how did we pass from 20-30 downloads to 100 during 2 days? Finally, a friend told us that a lot of people was talking about our app in the local newspaper. Our first question was Why? :-S
As we said before Bilbao Council released an iPhone app and there was a news about that in the internet edition of the newspaper. Someone asked about an app for Android and "magic" a couple of people talked about our app with very good ratings. So, it's interesting to see how sometimes the competition helps you :-)
The last three months we have more or less the same downloads. It looks like April wasn't so good as previous months but we should add the downloads from April 30 (out of scope of this study) that would help to be very close to 800 installs.
The line that shows the installations is quit straight, it means that daily installs are regular. Looking to the daily installs chart we see that it's not totally on that way. During the first 2 months we had significant differences. It's normal we hadn't too many installs during the 2-3 first weeks due to nobody knew us, our rate didn't exist yet and this kind of local transport app is quite specific, it's not like a game that 1 week later has been posted in China and USA blogs...
Also, it's funny to see our download record on Jan 2. You are probably wondering what happened. We delayed a couple of days to discover it. We were stunned, how did we pass from 20-30 downloads to 100 during 2 days? Finally, a friend told us that a lot of people was talking about our app in the local newspaper. Our first question was Why? :-S
As we said before Bilbao Council released an iPhone app and there was a news about that in the internet edition of the newspaper. Someone asked about an app for Android and "magic" a couple of people talked about our app with very good ratings. So, it's interesting to see how sometimes the competition helps you :-)
The last three months we have more or less the same downloads. It looks like April wasn't so good as previous months but we should add the downloads from April 30 (out of scope of this study) that would help to be very close to 800 installs.
Other statistics
Installs by Android version
Installs by Mobile Device
Android 2.3.3+ is the King yet. One of the interesting things looking at these numbers is that it looks like we are a bit behind the average in Spain regarding Android update version. For transport apps Android 2.2 is 9,41% while we are yet in 19,35%. And for version 4.0.x we are at 9,68% when the average in the world is 14,05%.
Regarding mobile devices Samsung Galaxy wins (3 between the 9 first).
Regarding mobile devices Samsung Galaxy wins (3 between the 9 first).
User ratings
As we always say quality is a MUST, so everything below 5 stars is not acceptable for us. We focus in opinions with the poor ratings. Unfortunately, sometimes the users only select a low rate but they don't include any comment that give us a clue about the issue.
In this case we only had 1 comment from the 1 star rating. It was in Spanish but it said something like: "Bad bad bad. Buses time are wrong". Well, this is not exactly on this way. We show in the app the official times, so in the cases that a bus is under time we are not able to anticipate.
Many users have asked us about GPS connection. We are in touch with Bilbao urban transport company (Veolia) in order to get access to the GPS servers and provide real-time information but at this moment we are waiting an answer yet.
The rest of the people are happy with the app and they congratulate and encourage us to release new versions.
In this case we only had 1 comment from the 1 star rating. It was in Spanish but it said something like: "Bad bad bad. Buses time are wrong". Well, this is not exactly on this way. We show in the app the official times, so in the cases that a bus is under time we are not able to anticipate.
Many users have asked us about GPS connection. We are in touch with Bilbao urban transport company (Veolia) in order to get access to the GPS servers and provide real-time information but at this moment we are waiting an answer yet.
The rest of the people are happy with the app and they congratulate and encourage us to release new versions.
Milestones
- Nov 29, 2011 BilbaoBus Golive (3 downloads :-P)
- Dec 29, 2011 515 total installs
- Jan 02, 2012 109 installs in one day (record)
- Jan 10, 2012 1008 total installs
- Feb 15, 2012 2003 total installs
- Mar 08, 2012 Last Release v0.99.3
- Mar 22, 2012 2999 total installs
- Mar 26, 2012 Interview in RadioEuskadi (important local radio)
- Apr 15, 2012 Posted in Caverna Cibernetica (important local blog)
- Apr 29, 2012 Over 4000 downloads :-D
Conclusion
After 5 months, 4060 downloads, 3 releases these are our thoughts;
- It was a good idea releasing BilbaoBus as free app. The feedback provided by our users will be more useful than all money we could get. Our app is now much better than 5 months ago and it will be a lot better in the future thanks to users feedback and our own experience.
- It's a MUST to listen the users, they are the best to tell us what they need.
- Raise often releases is a good idea, the users feel comfortable with continuous improvements. It generates more traffic and downloads.
- A good rating is the key. We escalated to the first positions thanks to user ratings and at this moment our app is the number one for Bilbao for local transport.
- Internet provides options that were very difficult (almost impossible) a few years ago. Now, you can contact directly with bloggers, journalists, etc... If you provide them a good story they will be happy to help you for free. We sent several mails explaining clearly what we did, how we did it, which were our objectives... and of course a lot of them didn't answer us but two (very important) did and we could talk about BilbaoBus in the most important local radio in Country Basque and in a technology blog of a very important local newspaper.
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