Chomp

Football Scores Top Spot in App Search Queries For January

The app market saw a fantastic start in 2012! Our January app search analytics report shows the most significant trends, search queries, and downloads, and ‘Football’ was the number one search query for the month for January. Given the high level of football fever leading up to the Super Bowl, traffic for the query was elevated throughout the month and spiked around major game days, including Wild Card Weekend, the Division Playoffs, and the Conference Championships.  There are tons of great football-related apps available on Chomp, from games and fantasy football, to live streaming, apps that help you keep track of scores, learn the history of the game and test your knowledge in trivia.  And no matter who you cheered for this past Super Bowl Sunday, we hope that everyone enjoyed another great football season. Here are the additional highlights from the report.

• Paid app downloads decreased on iOS to 23%, from a high of 30% in December. Paid app downloads on Android showed no change and stayed at 3%.

• The games category decreased its share for the second consecutive month on Android while utilities increased. Social networking and music both increased by at least 0.5%, while travel and lifestyle apps decreased by the same amount. On iOS, games decreased its share by 3.5%. Utilities, productivity and social networking apps saw their shares increase by at least 1%, while education apps decreased their share by 1%.

• “Free” was again the top search term across all countries sampled on Android, with the top apps of the month including such classics such as Pandora, WhatsApp Messenger, Movies, and Adobe Flash Player 10.3. The top five Android apps were Pandora, Lookout Mobile Security, GO Launcher EX, Zedge Ringtones, and MP3 Music Download Pro.

• App search abroad showed more diversity on iOS, with social networking and chat apps dominating the top apps internationally. The top iOS apps for January were Words With Friends Free, VEVO, Temple Run, Facebook, and Instagram.

Keep an eye out for our next report arriving in early March.

 

Chomp Charts January 2012

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Christmas Is The Season to be Jolly When it Comes to App Search

December was an extraordinary month for apps. We saw a significant increase in holiday app search traffic; there was a 30% increase in search volume on Christmas Day and a 20% increase between Christmas Day and New Years Day. “Christmas” was the search term of the month, with an additional query volume increase of 300% immediately before Christmas Day. This month’s search analytics report shows that there were also 4.2 million IOS and 3.7 million Android devices activated on Christmas Day.

• App monetization on iOS significantly increased again this month. Paid app downloads reached 30% for the first time ever. The $0.99 price point increased from 15.9% to 17.8% of all apps. While paid app downloads on Android showed no change.

• Congratulations to Chomp’s top 55, the most popular iOS and Android apps of the month. The top five Android apps were Angry Birds Rio, eBay, Google+, Google Sky Map and Zedge Ringtones.  “Free” was again the top search term across all countries sampled on Android, and GT Racing: Motor Academy Free+ stormed to the top of the international charts.

• App search abroad showed more diversity on iOS.  Christmas was celebrated around the world as a top search term on iOS devices in the United Kingdom, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Temple Run made its debut as a top app. The top iOS apps for December were WhatsApp Messenger, JunoWallet GiftCards, Pandora, Adobe Photoshop Express and Pho.to Lab. 

We hope you all had a successful and happy holiday season. Check out the New Year’s resolution apps below to help you stay on track with your goals this year. We look forward to bringing you even better app search in 2012. Look for our next report in early February.

 

Chomp Charts December

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Chomp’s 2011 Highlights

2011 has been an amazing year for Chomp! The app market has seen explosive growth, and as apps surpass a billion downloads every month, app search and discovery are more relevant than ever. This year we have covered a lot of ground with product launches, partnerships, new technical advisors and our expanding team of scientists building and improving our technology.

In September, we announced our partnership with Verizon.  We will be powering search in their new Verizon Apps store and Chomp app search will ship in every Verizon Android phone. Verizon has a fantastic team, and we enjoyed working closely with them at the Verizon Application Innovation Center. Partnering with the largest U.S. carrier to power search for Verizon Android users has been a significant milestone for Chomp. 

September also marked the launch of Chomp Search Ads. This is the first ad product that connects app advertisers to consumers searching for apps. The new program, which is currently in private beta, allows developers to bid on keywords or phrases, which deliver their ads when users search on those terms within our app search engine. Chomp Search Ads matches app ads to the most relevant potential customer, resulting in quality ad matching for both the advertiser and the consumer. We have already had an incredible response to the private beta!

In August, we announced that two prominent scientists had joined the company as technology advisors – Dr. David Blei, a Princeton University assistant professor and machine learning expert, and Dr. Don Metzler, a USC assistant research professor, Information Sciences Institute computer scientist and information retrieval expert. Drs. Blei and Metzler join Chomp to further strengthen the company’s technology lead in app search.  They work directly with my Co-founder & CTO, Cathy Edwards, and our Chomp team of PhDs and scientists from Berkeley, MIT and Google. 

We pride ourselves on innovative and cutting edge design.  In addition to launching Chomp on Android in February, we released a new version of our iPhone app with a completely redesigned user interface in September. We have made discovering apps a more dynamic and enjoyable experience.

Thank you for your support this year. We will be bringing you even better app search in 2012, along with exciting new announcements. Keep searching and discovering great apps!

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Shopping and Discounts Dominate App Search Queries in November

We hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving.  Judging by our November search analytics, a lot of you were using your mobile phones to find the best holiday shopping bargains.  Mobile device searches for the terms “shopping” and “discounts” significantly increased after Thanksgiving.  Search traffic for the terms spiked over 1200% and 3000% above normal on Black Friday and stayed consistent over the long weekend before bottoming out after Cyber Monday.  With Christmas quickly approaching, check out the list below of recommended holiday apps and holiday games to get you through December. Make sure you keep an eye out for more holiday apps arriving on iOS and Android throughout the month. Here are some additional highlights from this month’s search analytics report:

• There was a large increase in app monetization for iOS this month. Paid downloads increased from 20% to 27%. On Android they decreased from 7% to 3%.

• On Android, larger categories such as games, utilities, and music increased their category share by at least one percent, while books, finance and sports saw small decreases in their shares. For iOS, games decreased their share from 32.6% to 31.7% and social networking decreased from 7.1% to 5.5%.  Lifestyle apps saw a small uptick from 5.2% to 6.1%. 

• We took a deeper look at international search queries this month. “Free” was again the top search term across all countries sampled on Android.  Contract Killer debuted on the international top app list along with StumbleUpon.  The top five Android apps were Dropbox, eBay, Handcent SMS, Movies and WhatsApp Messenger. 

• App search abroad showed more diversity on iOS.  Pandora and Facebook stayed incredibly popular internationally, with the game Fragger debuting on the international top app charts. The top iOS apps for November were TuneIn Radio, Instagram, Zombie Highway, TuneWiki and Doodle Jump.

 

Chomp Charts November

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Searches For Halloween Apps Skyrocket in October

Today we released our October search analytics, showing another successful month of app search here at Chomp. During October, users turned to Halloween mobile apps over the course of the month, with a sharp increase over Halloween weekend and traffic peaking on Oct. 31. The most popular apps according to downloads were Pumpkins vs. Monsters, Angry Bird Seasons, Bubble Blast Halloween, Coin Dozer Halloween, Halloween! and Halloween Live Wallpaper. We hope everyone had an enjoyable Halloween. Keep an eye out for exciting new holiday apps coming out over the next few months!  Other app trends that occurred during October:

• App monetization has begun to increase again after seeing a downturn last month. It increased by 4% on Android and 2% on iOS platforms for the month of October. Users opted for the paid versions of many apps or for premium priced games such as Cut the Rope, Zenonia, Need for Speed, Asphalt 6, and several paid launcher apps. 

• On Android, larger categories such as games, utilities, and entertainment, saw slight downticks, while books, travel, and sports saw increases in category share. The top five Android apps were Dropbox, Google Sky Map, Ebay, Angry Birds and Dolphin Browser HD.

• For iOS, games increased search share from 31.5% to 32.6% (up from 27.7% two months ago). Utility apps increased search share from 6.0% to 7.1% as wallpaper and other customization apps increase in popularity on iOS. The top iOS apps for October were TuneIn Radio, Instagram, Zombie Highway, TuneWiki and Doodle Jump. 

• This month we took a deeper look into International search across the Android and IOS Market. “Free” was again the top search term on Android, with Drag Racing making its debut in International Apps and Adobe Flash Player 10.3 remaining incredibly popular on Android devices.  App search abroad showed more diversity on iOS.  Assassin’s Creed Altair’s Chronicle remained popular, while Dermander Panarama debuted in Top International Apps. 

 

Chomp Charts October

 

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Chomp Integrates Twitter into App Search Engine

At Chomp we are constantly improving the app search experience for our users to make it even easier to discover new apps. Today we are announcing some really exciting new Twitter features.

When users download the Chomp app, we will automatically use their Twitter handle to sign in and create a Chomp profile.  Users can then download apps and tweet app reviews to their Twitter followers. Sharing app discoveries with friends is now a fast and seamless experience. 

We are also dedicating a featured tile on our homepage to the Top 100 Twitter Apps, making it the best way to discover other apps with Twitter features in the iTunes store.

 Chomp is already the fastest and easiest way to search and discover new apps, but we also want to ensure that it is the best way to share your favorite apps through Twitter.  Working with Twitter to ensure seamless integration forges a stronger link between discovery and sharing.

We hope you enjoy these great new features!

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Searches For NFL-Related Mobile Apps Dramatically Increase in September

Our consumer search analytics for the month of September show the most significant consumer search trends for Android and Apple iOS apps. This month interest in NFL apps “kicked off” with the start of the football season. At Chomp we saw a large increase in the number of NFL apps being downloaded. The most popular apps according to downloads were NFL 11, NFL.com Fantasy Football, EA’s Madden NFL 12, ESPN/NFL Mobile and DirectTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket.  The highest activity for NFL app search occurred during the second weekend of games on September 17th and 18^th.

• Increases were also seen for game and utility queries. On Android, game queries increased from 27.7% to 31.5%. On iOS utility queries increased from 15.8% to 21.3%.

• App monetization declined on the Android and iOS platforms for the month of September. Paid app downloads decreased by 1% on Android and by 5% on iOS. On Android, the decreases were concentrated at price points below $3.00. This is the second month in a row that paid downloads have decreased.

• The top Android search queries were “free,” “utilities,” “entertainment,” “communication” and “reference.” The top five Android app searches were for Dropbox, Google Sky Map, Ebay, WhatsApp Messenger, and Handcent SMS.

• The top iOS queries were for “music,” “social networking,” “games,” “simulation games” and “entertainment.” The top iOS app searches were for TuneIn Radio, Instagram, Zombie Highway, Doodle Jump and TuneWiki.

 

Chomp Charts September

We hope you continue to discover great apps on Chomp! Look out for our next report in November.

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Chomp Search Ads and New iPhone App Launch!

September has been a huge month at Chomp! The Chomp team has been working really hard to give you an even greater search experience.  Verizon and Chomp announced that the Chomp search engine will ship with Android phones this fall.  Now we’re making  two more announcements. We are releasing our new ad product, Chomp Search Ads. This is a significant milestone in the history of not just Chomp but the entire mobile ecosystem.  We are also launching a completely redesigned version of Chomp for the iPhone, which makes it even faster and easier for you to find the apps you want and discover new ones.

Chomp Search Ads is the first advertising product to connect app advertisers to consumers searching for apps. It will deliver the highest quality users to developers while ensuring an even better search experience for users. Chomp Search Ads, allows advertisers to capitalize on billions of app downloads for app discovery. According to Gartner Group, $893 million was spent on app advertising in 2010.  With over 200 million iOS and Android users looking for apps each month, developers are spending 20-30% of total app revenue they generate on trying to acquire new users through various advertising and marketing initiatives. Total app revenue is expected to be $50 billion by 2014, and as a result, is forecasting a $15-20 billion spend on app advertising.[1]

Developers, for the first time, can bid on keywords or phrases, which will deliver their ads when users search on those terms within Chomp. Chomp Search Ads matches app ads to the most relevant potential customer, resulting in quality ad matching for both the advertiser and the consumer. Our product will be opening up to a limited amount of advertisers during this first stage of private beta. Ads will be shown for apps based on a number of factors, such as bid price, as well as relevancy to the search term. Our users will always receive the most relevant search results, irrespective of advertising buys. Campaign reporting to advertisers will allow the developer to measure the performance of Chomp Search Ads.

Kevin Rose, Chomp advisor and Founder of app development company Milk, comments on Chomp Search Ads “Chomp’s ability to give Milk keyword ad delivery as a result of relevant user search is as ground-breaking as when Google first offered keyword advertising for the web.” Prior to Chomp Search Ads, advertisers could only buy app display or performance advertising, however under these models, ad placement is disconnected from the user’s desire to find an app.  Our goal is to make advertising accessible for the bulk of developers. It will have a huge impact for developers that don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising, being able to purchase a product that specifically targets the right customers. You can sign up for the private beta at ads.chomp.com or by clicking the link at the bottom of the chomp.com home page.

Today we are also launching a new version of Chomp for the iPhone, which has a great new design, a lot of new features and it makes it even faster and easier for you to find the apps you want. Over the last year, we’ve been listening to you, our users and have conducted multiple focus groups and solicited input from a lot of mobile users. Based on your input and our own learning we have decided to take another leap forward making discovering apps an even easier and fun experience. The completely redesigned home screen features a prominent search box that automatically begins displaying search suggestions as soon as you start typing. The home screen also displays the top ten suggested search terms as determined by what is actively trending, while displaying preview icons of the top apps. Additionally, five user-recommended topic tiles are displayed on the home screen which include Free apps of the day, Top 100, New apps, On sale and Surprise me. We are really excited to share our new iPhone app with you! It is available for download at Chomp.com and iTunes.

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

Screen shots of Chomp Search Ads

 

Screen shots of the new iPhone app

 

---

[1] Statistics as reported by TechCrunch

Verizon Announcement

Today is a significant day in Chomp history.  This morning, Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer Marni Walden delivered her keynote address at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in Las Vegas. She announced that beginning this fall, all Verizon Android phones will ship with Chomp’s app search engine. Chomp will be integrated into the newly launched Verizon Apps store.  Given the fact that Verizon is the largest U.S. carrier, this is monumental news for Chomp and for Verizon Android customers!  The fact that Verizon recognizes the importance of app search enough to integrate it into their phones means that Verizon App customers will be able to search for apps based on what an app does, not just the name of the app. Chomp’s search technology makes it possible to search for “restaurant guides,” "kid’s games," "expense trackers," or any description, and instantly see the best apps for that search term.  Chomp realized early on that web search doesn’t work well for app search because the information that’s available about apps is completely different than Web data.  And to add to the challenge – there’s now almost a million apps available.  Both of these factors make app search very hard.  But the fearless Chomp team has been working on this for over two years and we currently have 11 patents pending in app search and user experience. 

And because Verizon carefully evaluated the other app search products out there and decided that Chomp was the best option is an incredible honor.  Thank you to our partners at Verizon and to Verizon Android users – get ready to discover some very cool apps!

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder

 

Screen Shots of the New Verizon App Store

 

 

Searches for Hurricane and Earthquake Mobile Apps Dramatically Increase in August

Today we released our consumer search report for August. The month proved to be a challenging one for the eastern U.S. as residents struggled with Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Emily and the Virginia earthquake.  At Chomp we could see that mobile phones were an important tool as people struggled to deal with these disasters.  Search traffic for hurricane apps spiked more than 2000% above trend during Hurricane Irene’s formation, warning, and landfall. A 250% spike was seen during the formation of Tropical Storm Emily. Search traffic for earthquake apps was up 2000% immediately after the 5.8 magnitude event in Virginia. 

Our thoughts are with those that suffered during the storms and earthquake, as they work to rebuild their lives and communities.  Their courage is very inspiring to everyone here at Chomp and we wish them well. 

While natural disaster related apps were of the most interest to search users, other trends emerged during the month:

• Once again Games were a top search query. On Android, game queries increased from 21.7% to 25.7%, and utility queries increased from 11.5% to 15.8%. Queries for iOS games dropped slightly from 31.7% to 27.7%, while its share was distributed among several smaller categories.

• After three consecutive months of increasing paid app downloads we saw a decrease in August. Paid app downloads decreased by 4% on Android, this decrease was seen across lower and premium price points. iOS saw an increase in paid app downloads of 1%. The $0.99 price point saw a small drop in share, which was redistributed to higher price points.

• The top Android search queries were “free,” “games,” “entertainment,” “music” and “utilities,” The top five Android app searches were for Angry Birds Rio, Sound Hound, Angry Birds, IMDB Movies & TV, and Advanced Task Killer. The top iOS queries were for “games,” “entertainment,” “puzzle games,” “adventure games” and “lifestyle.” The top iOS app searches were for Dropbox, Cut The Rope, Plants vs. Zombies, Tap Pet Hotel, and Instagram.

 

Chomp Charts August

 

Ben Keighran
CEO & Co-Founder