ELLIE POWERS: So I'm going to talk today
about getting the most from Google Play.
My name is Ellie Powers.
I'm a product manager on the Google Play team.
And I work on apps.
Many of you are here building apps, but why?
Right?
Why are we doing this?
Well, for some of us, it's because we
have a particular idea that we're really passionate about,
and we want to get out into the world.
For some of us, it's because we have
an idea for an exciting new business that
doesn't exist yet.
And the sort of world that we're talking about
is this multi-device, multi-billion person world
that's grown over the past decade or so.
And we're also going to talk about how Google, specifically
Google Play, is uniquely positioned
to help you get your idea and your business out
into the world and as successful as possible.
So first a little bit about me.
I love to travel.
I've been to countries all over the world.
And my favorite thing when I travel
is to go to a place that's going to make
me feel a little bit out of my element.
The other reason I love to travel
is they tell me that it's supposed
to be a really good idea to get away from your work from time
to time.
But unfortunately, when you work on mobile apps,
this is getting really hard to do actually.
So about a year ago, I went on a trip to Thailand and Cambodia.
And when I was on the subways in Thailand thinking-- yeah,
I'll get away from my work-- I'm seeing ads for Android games.
And then I go to the markets in Cambodia
and I see Android devices for sale.
And it's really a nice reminder that the work that we're
doing here, to build this mobile ecosystem together,
is really reaching people all over the world.
And today here we are in Moscone Center,
and we're seeing that the wave of Android
is now going in both directions.
Not only are our users everywhere,
but there are developers all over the globe.
Just actually across here on the floor here,
we have a developer called Rayark, also
from Southeast Asia.
And they've made a beautiful, immersive game experience.
And if you haven't seen it yet, I definitely
recommend that you go and check it out afterwards.
So these are the sorts of strong mobile ecosystems
that we're building all around the world
and they're tied together through Google Play.
So how did Google get involved in this whole mobile apps
thing?
Let's go a little bit further back into Google's history.
So my first experience with Google was this box.
And you could just type stuff into the box
and it would just find things for you.
It was magic.
And this was the first opportunity that a lot of us
had to see just how big the world was,
and that seemingly far away ideas and places
were now becoming within reach.
And so this was what Google started out with,
connecting people with the information and the products
that they were interested in.
So what happened next?
Well, on April 1, 2004, Gmail launched.
In 2005, YouTube joined Google.
And then with maps and other key launches,
Google became known for customer-centric internet
experiences and really, really enormous scale.
I mean, you may have remembered what
a big deal it was over 10 years ago
when you finally got a whole gigabyte for your online email
where people were offering just a fraction of that.
And this meant that your information
could be truly accessible from anywhere.
And this was happening on the web.
It was happening on desktop computers.
Maybe you remember having a dial-up modem
and that big upgrade moment to DSL.
And this was cool and exciting.
And let's fast forward to today.
Well, Android had joined back in 2005.
What's happened in those almost 10 years
is that we've now moved on to the next chapter
of the internet.
We have billions of people connecting.
Many of them are using Android as their first device.
And what happens?
What is the difference between your desktop computer
and a website with your mobile device today?
You're now in this kind of loop of constant interaction.
You've replaced clicking and typing
with touch screens, voice controls, and sensors.
And Google's still doing what Google has always
done best which is connecting people
with the information and products
that they find most interesting.
What this means here is now connecting people with the apps
that they love on a range of devices.
So what we're going to do today is
talk about what this means to developers like all of us.
So again, why do we develop?
Why do we build apps?
It's to get our ideas and businesses out into the world.
And an app is definitely the best way
to do that in this day and age.
So what we're going to talk about today
is how your app can reach the right users at the right time,
and the approach that you'll take
is going to depend on what stage your app is in.
So first, I want to talk to those
of you who are just getting started.
Maybe you've just built an app or you have an idea for one.
You don't have any users yet, so that'll
be your first challenge.
So before you publish your app, you probably
want to understand this ecosystem that you're joining,
and that's Google Play.
So what is Play?
Play is an ecosystem of apps, developers, and the store.
We have the one billion devices that were discussed before
and the people who use them.
Well over a million apps are in the store.
And behind the scenes, we have massively
scaled cloud computing services that
can help to do everything that we're going to talk about next.
What I think about what Google Play really is at its core
is a matchmaker.
If I'm a user, it's going to try to match me with a sort of app
that I'm going to want.
Maybe I'm looking for that app, or maybe I don't even
know I'm looking and it's just helping me discover something
new about what my device can do.
And then on the other side, if I have an app,
it's going to match me with the sort of users
who are going to be interested in my app.
So let's start out with something new,
something that's coming soon, something
that we're incredibly excited about.
So earlier in the keynote, you heard the discussion
about material design.
And on Play we're really trying to take
this beautiful, interactive layout to heart.
Now, when you launch a new app and you put it up
on the Play store, you really want
to make a great first impression.
So we've decided to make the store listing
on Google Play even more appealing.
And by the way, this is just a general concept.
It's not totally done, but we wanted
to share with you early so that you can understand
the context in which your app will be available.
So at the top you can see this beautiful feature graphic.
And at the bottom you can see a quick text summary
where you can explain to users exactly what your app will
for them.
So you might want to go into the Developer Console
and make sure that you actually have this graphic
and text available so that when we roll this out,
your app will be ready.
And in the middle here, you're going
to see the reasons why the user may want to install the app.
So for example, a great reason to install the app
is it's got a high star rating.
So we call that out really clearly.
Or maybe it's got a lot of downloads.
Or maybe, it's because your friend
has installed it and given it a high rating.
So this is going to be rolling out soon,
and we hope that it'll help you make your apps give a better
first impression.
OK.
When I go out in the world and actually talk to Android users,
I like to ask them how they find about their favorite apps.
The number one reason I hear again and again is-- well,
I found this app because my friend told me about it.
Perfectly natural.
And that's why on Google Play we're
trying to reflect the same behavior.
Whenever we see that your friend has rated or plus-oned an app,
we tell you about it.
And we also show you why we make each [? introduction. ?]
We don't just say install the app.
We say you should install this app because.
So what this does is it creates a ripple effect.
If you find one user who installs your app
and gives you a rating of plus 1,
it'll ripple out to effect all of their friends
and build more momentum behind your app.
You can also now follow top brands
like Wired or the New Yorker, or even celebrities.
So we talked about Play being a matchmaker.
How do we do this?
We're using the full power of Google
and the user's full profile to be
able to target the right app to the right user
at the right time.
We've also created these targeted groups
of apps based on user interests.
So here, you can see racing games
and you can also see food and drink apps.
And we don't necessarily show these groups to everybody, only
to the people who we know have these interests.
We also show personalized recommendations
that are based on a whole variety of things
we know about the user, including
what their friends have recommended.
And Play Games is something that's
really helpful for those of you who are making game apps.
Play Game Services are a great way
to enhance your app, to make it more social and more fun.
We launched it last year at I/O, and we've
heard that it's a great way to discover more games
and also to engage with the games
that you're already playing.
So today at I/O we announced some really exciting features,
including the new user profile, which you can see here.
It's showing which games you play in the achievements.
For example, on the screenshot behind me
you can see how many experience points
that this particular user has accumulated
in different types of games.
And then you can also create what
are called quests inside your app.
You can say-- hey, user, why don't you go and accomplish
this particular objective in a limited time.
And then we'll also go and show those quests in the Play Games
app to help recruit new users.
So if a user is looking for your app, if you're a developer,
you want to be absolutely sure that that user will
find that app no matter where they're looking.
And so that's why it's integrated with Google Search.
So if someone is on an Android device and searches
for your app in Google Search that
could be in Chrome or maybe in the Google search app,
will actually show your apps in the search results
in a nice way with an easy install button
so they can install the app directly from there.
And then a new feature that we're rolling out this year,
and we're very happy to say is now
available to all developers, is app indexing.
So you're probably familiar with the idea of Google indexing
websites, but actually, Google can do basically the same thing
with apps too.
So what does this allow us to do?
It can allow us to link a search with a particular page
inside an app that a user already has in your device.
So let's give an example.
So here, the user is saying-- I want
to search for a Chromecast, where can I buy it?
And it turns out this user already
had the Walmart app installed.
So when they click on the link, it'll
actually launch the Chromecast app-- sorry,
launch the Walmart app-- directly
to the Chromecast page.
And so this means that we're giving the user
the best possible experience on their device.
So if you're interested in trying this out now,
this will be available in the developer console
through a special link where you can
link your app to your website.
OK.
So that's how Play can act as a matchmaker.
And you publish your app, and a lot of this goodness
just happens for you automatically.
We help you get a lot of your reach for your app
without a lot of effort.
So now, I want to talk to those of you who already have
an app that's good, and you already have some users,
but you want to go to the next level.
You want to make your app great.
So your next step is to find a way
to make your app one that everyone wants to come back to.
And you want to use Play to focus
on finding the exact right audience for your app too.
So here's the whole life cycle of an app.
Right?
Design, develop, distribute.
And this week, you're going to be
going to tons of different sessions.
So we're just going to focus on a few things here.
Let's take a look at how we can combine the best
that the Google has to offer for Google Play developers.
So from building to promoting and monetizing your app,
we have a lot of really interesting solutions
available.
So let's say we're launching a new app.
[? Urs ?] showed us some amazing stuff
in the new Cloud Platform.
And the classic problem we hear from developers
is-- I want to build something that's ready for massive scale,
but I don't have a huge budget on day one, so what do I do?
So we've actually created the Cloud Platform mobile starter
kit.
And what this can do for you is allow you
with very little programming to be able to set up
your back-end infrastructure, and then if you need to scale
you can just do it like that.
And this allows you to scale to huge applications
and get that super fast performance
that you expect from Google.
Now, if you're thinking about making
your application richer-- maybe through, let's say,
the maps API or the in-app billing
API-- the best way to do that integration
is through the Google Play Services.
Now, this is something that we automatically
install in the user's devices.
And most importantly, it's kept up to date.
So what does this mean for you?
You can just make calls directly to Google Play Services.
There's no SDK to maintain.
You don't have to wait for any sort of roll-out.
So you can access these new features immediately.
So at I/O today, we announced new activity recognition
services, including walking and running.
So you can make a really interactive application
that knows what the user's doing physically.
And we also announced Cloud Save.
The Cloud Save API allows you to synchronize data easily
with your mobile applications without any sort of background
programming.
And what this gives you, for the user,
is the ability to sync data quickly and easily
when the user goes offline and online
and works across multiple devices.
OK.
So you have a good app and you're
ready to get it into the world.
Well, we've heard from a bunch of developers
that as they scale and go beyond just one application and one
language to dozens of applications
and dozens of languages, it can get
to be a little bit difficult to manage.
You want to produce a store listing that's
going to give a great tailored experience.
If you're in a certain language, so that
would mean localized text and localized graphics.
Or, if you're on, let's say, a tablet,
you want to provide tablet screenshots too.
And this ends up meaning that you have to copy and paste
a ton of times or manage hundreds of assets.
So we have a solution that we're very happy to announce today.
With the new Developer Publishing API,
you'll be able to integrate the publishing
process with your existing build system.
So you'll be able to manage your beta testing, stage roll-outs,
production releases, and all of the assets
and images and graphics that you're looking to roll out.
You can even manage your in-app product catalog as well.
So this is currently in a closed beta,
and we're looking to roll it out more soon.
OK.
So last year when we talked about beta testing,
we were really excited to tell all of our developers
that this feature was coming.
But I've got to say, I was pretty overwhelmed
by the reaction.
Developers have really taken this on
and made some amazing things happen for these features.
And I wanted to talk with you about one developer who's
actually here in the audience today, ZenStudios.
So they had a new game that they were going to launch,
CastleStorm-Free to Siege.
And if you're a game developer, you
know that with every new title you put so much work into it,
and you want it to be perfect when you launch it.
So how do you do this?
Well, ZenStudios decided to use the beta testing feature.
They decided to make it a public beta,
although they could have kept it private.
And they said-- maybe, we can get about 1,000 users.
So they posted it on their website.
They posted it on social media.
Three days later, they had 3,000 users
and it soon expanded to about 6,000 users.
So they had a huge amount of interest in this beta test.
And because they care so much about the user experience
and making their game great, they
said give us your honest feedback.
And users, absolutely, they came back
with all sorts of great stuff.
They said that the controls in a couple places were hard to use.
They mentioned exactly where they were frustrated,
and this allowed ZenStudios to be
able to improve user retention at some tricky points.
The other feedback they got was-- well,
different sorts of users and different countries
than they had expected actually wanted to play their game.
So they actually ended up modifying their launch
countries.
And they were able to give a bit of sense of how much
marketing budget that they should invest for this game
because they were able to see what some of the early metrics
might look like.
So this early data and analytics meant
that they had a much more successful launch.
Usually, what game developers end up doing is
they do a small launch in maybe a certain smaller
country like, let's say, Canada.
Or, they might spend a bunch of money up-front
on trying to do some paid user acquisition.
But in this case, ZenStudios didn't
need to do either of these things.
So the result was they had a really successful launch.
They got a star rating of 4.5 stars.
And they now have hundreds of thousands
of happy users playing their game.
Wrong slide.
OK.
So next, we're going to talk about staged rollouts.
This feature is all about keeping the momentum
going when you push out new versions of your app.
When we talked with Jack Threads, they said-- hey,
we want to redo our Android app and make it
the best mobile experience ever.
But if you're going to take on a project this big,
you're going to be really worried.
If you have an eCommerce app, you'd
be afraid to touch the checkout flow
because you might break everything.
Can you imagine having an eCommerce app and no one
could buy anything for a few days?
That would be a huge problem.
So what they said was with staged rollouts,
they were willing to touch these trickier bits of code
and make such a fundamental change without all
this worry about breaking stuff.
And they said that they can now move much more
quickly with their small team.
During the rollouts, what they do is they
check the desired metrics, the stats, the ratings,
the installs, and the crashes, and make sure
that this new version is performing at least as
well as the previous one.
So as a result, they now use staged rollouts
with every single launch they do.
And most importantly, because Google Play
is such a great platform for trying new stuff,
they actually try out their new features on Android first.
OK.
So you can see why we launched beta testing
and staged rollouts, to help developers make great apps.
So I wanted to share a few numbers
about how much of a response that we've gotten.
We've had over 80,000 apps use beta testing so far.
And if you look at all the apps that have tried this feature,
they have an average rating of over 4.2 stars, which is great.
This is clear evidence that people are really
using this to improve the quality of their apps.
And over a third of the apps that we
see coming from our top charts are using beta testing.
And many of them are using staged rollouts too.
It's become a best practice at Google as well.
OK.
So another thing I hear from developers
is-- I have limited resources, a small team, and a lot of ideas,
so how do I know what to focus on first?
So optimization tips is something
we rolled out last year to help you localize your apps.
So for example, if we notice that you've
gotten a lot of users in a certain country,
but your app isn't available in their native language,
we let you know.
Or for example, other types of opportunities.
Like, if we notice that you haven't upgraded yet
to the new in-app billing V3 API and that
might be hurting your sales, we let you know about that too.
So these are all opportunities to improve your app
and get more out of Google Play.
And you said in response to that-- I also
want to know when something's gone wrong.
And so in response to that, we announced alerts.
So we'll let you know if you launch
a new version of your app and your ratings go down.
Developers like this too, and what
we heard from you was-- well, I want to find out even sooner.
So we're also releasing a way that you can now go and sign up
to receive email alerts every time you
get a new alert in the Google Play Developer Console.
OK.
So once you have your app and it's doing pretty well,
you probably want to take a closer look
at what users are doing inside your app.
And so that's where Google Analytics can come in.
It's the easiest way to get this deep insight
into in-app behavior.
And it also can allow you to see how
users behave as they move from your mobile apps
across different platforms to the web.
So one of the best things about Google Analytics,
why it's so easy to integrate, is
it uses the Google Play Services which
is already on the user's device.
This just means that you need only a couple of lines of code
added to your application with-- and you don't blow your APK
size by adding another Analytics SDK.
And once you get a sense of what people are doing in your app,
then the next thing you want to do is experiment.
So what you can do here is set up a few goals.
Maybe your goal is to have your users watch more videos,
or make more purchases, or things like that.
You set the goal.
Then you can set up a couple of different options,
and over time it'll switch automatically
to whatever the best option is.
So last year, we announced that we
were helping you identify which of your marketing campaigns
was the most successful at recruiting new valuable users.
So what you can do here is for each campaign,
you can see how many users view, install, and launch your app.
And that means you'll end up focusing on
the most effective user acquisition channels
and fine-tuning your campaigns.
And usually we find with developers
as they get more sophisticated, they'll
define some sort of group of users
that they think is the most valuable.
So for example, in this game, we might
say that we want to track users who
came in through a certain campaign.
They've reached at least level seven,
and let's say that they've spent $5.
And you can track how that group of users is doing over time.
So we've seen freemium apps become the most popular way
to monetize on Google Play.
And so AdMob recently launched a new product
to help make these freemium apps more relevant and more
successful.
So let's take a look at how this works.
So when you're having an app that's
monetized through in-app purchases,
it's really important to reach the right user
at the right time with the right in-app product that constitutes
a meaningful interaction for the user,
and some time when they're willing to make a purchase,
basically.
So these ads can really help improve
the relevance of the in-app products
that you're showing to users.
And if you've already set up that segment of people
who came in through Campaign X and are on level seven
and have spent at least $5 in Google Analytics,
you can use these user segments here in AdMob
to be able to show those right ads at the right time.
We talk to our best developers and we
try to understand how they got so successful
from a financial perspective.
And then we want to make that information available
and that top expertise part of the regular experience
in the developer console.
So some of the top metrics we find our best developers
tracking are the average revenue per paying
user and the number of buyers that they have in their app.
So we've added these now, and we're also
going to offer breakdowns by country so that you
can see how are these important metrics tracking as you expand
your business into new markets.
OK.
Another trend that we've seen is subscriptions.
We're seeing more and more apps moving to this model
and it's become the fastest growing way
to make money in apps.
And this can be really helpful for your app,
especially if it has fresh content
or is frequently updated.
And if you can manage to find the right product,
it can make a great, steady recurring revenue
stream for your users-- for your business, too.
So this year at I/O, we're very happy to announce
that we're going to be rolling out weekly and seasonal
subscriptions pretty soon.
So if you're making a World Cup app, for example,
this can be the right way to structure that offering
to users.
OK.
So earlier today, we announced that we're
going to be offering direct carrier billing on tablets.
All the user has to do is set it up on their smartphone
and it'll keep working on their tablets.
And direct carrier billing is super popular,
and it's available on about 50 percent of all play users.
We've also seen with the launch of PayPal and gift cards,
there's just more and more ways for users around the globe
to pay.
So what this means is as our business expands
and more people in all over the world buy devices,
they're able to make purchases as well.
OK.
So let's say that you're a developer who has a great app.
You're already measuring your business carefully,
and your next step is to be part of the next big thing.
So here's a couple of advanced strategies
if this is the place that your app is in.
So previously, we were talking about reaching
users one by one, but we have some new exciting ways
to reach users in groups through the organizations
that they're a part of.
So if you have an app that's targeted
towards educational purposes, particularly classroom
education, you can submit your app for inclusion
in Play for education.
What this does is it puts your educational app
in front of school administrators and teachers,
and this opens up a new opportunity for you
through bulk purchasing.
So if you haven't signed up for this program
yet but you think your app should be part of it,
you can sign up in the developer console.
And then announced earlier today, we've
talked about how we're making Android
much much better for enterprises.
So this is another way to reach users and groups.
If you have an app that's great for people in a business
context, this can be a fantastic way to expand your reach.
We're going to be making a bunch of changes
across the Android platform and across Play when
system administrators will be able to say-- hey,
I want to take this app and make it
available to my whole company.
So stay tuned.
This is a very new program and we're
excited to tell you more soon.
So Android Wear is something you've
seen a lot of people talking about today,
and it's something that we're incredibly excited about.
This is an opportunity for a user
to have a device with them all the time
and not just in their pocket or in their bag, but on their arm.
And there's a lot of new interaction opportunities
that come up there.
So when we told the Huffington Post about this--
they were one of our early partners--
and they said-- yeah, this would be a really cool opportunity.
There app already worked great on phones and tablets,
and they were looking to keep being part of that leading
device availability.
So they decided to extend their app onto the watch.
One of the cool features they added
was the ability to get headline alerts 24/7 for their biggest
news aficionados.
And you can also share stories really easily
without even taking your phone out of your pocket.
So how Google Play is helping expand onto these new devices
is by knowing which devices a user has.
And then we can surface the groups
of the best apps for those devices
to those specific users who have them.
And this helps you reach the right users
in the ecosystem for these specialized devices
that you build apps for.
OK.
So now we're going to talk about the thing
that I am the most excited about,
compared to everything else.
We all talked about the promise of the internet,
connecting the whole world, and we finally
have the ability to realize that promise
in the very near future.
So in the mid-1990s, it took about ten years
to connect the first billion people to the internet.
Then it took about five years for the second billion.
And the third billion should be connected just about any day
now.
We're almost there.
And for many of these people, Android
is really their first computer.
It's their first experience at being connected and seeing
how the internet can enhance their lives.
And the way that this has turned out
is that all these three billion people are on mobile devices
and they want apps.
So if you want to reach every person in the world,
you need to understand what countries they're in.
And we can see what top countries are available.
Sure, the US is on there, but it's only
a teeny, teeny part of that big doughnut.
So when you're thinking about how to reach the world
and how to grow your business, it's
great to think about other countries, and all
the opportunities there for users
who want a lot of the same things,
or sometimes different things for mobile apps.
And an app should also speak the user's language.
Yes, English is popular, but also
Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, et cetera.
And that's what Samuel Braff from textPlus told us about.
His challenge was he wanted to make this great messaging
app that would help users exchange messages
or make calls for free or for a small fee.
And he realized that in order to get people fully engaged
with this application, they needed
to really understand what the app did.
And that meant explaining the features clearly
in the user's native language.
So he looked at which countries outside the US and Canada,
where he had initially launched, had some usage,
and he decided to localize.
He saw four times the growth in the non-English speaking
markets since then.
When we launched the app translation service last year,
the company was pretty quick to get involved.
And here are the reasons why they told us
that they've stuck with our app translation service.
First of all, it's an XML file.
With previous services, they'd have
to copy and paste all their strings.
The turnaround time was also very quick,
so there were no more delayed releases due to translation.
And it was affordable, so that meant
that they could localize into more markets.
So this strategy has helped them reach over 100 million people
globally, and Android is a key part of that strategy.
So this is what the app translation service looks like.
First, we show you some optimization tips
recommending where you might want
to consider translating your app.
Then you can request the languages
that you want to translate into and pay easily.
You get back a professional translation pretty quickly.
OK.
So what have we talked about today?
The world's population is about 7 billion people.
About 3 billion of them are connected to the internet.
And there's a billion or so Android devices actively being
used.
And this is really exciting.
Play is available on more devices than any other app
store in the world.
And so it's the best way to reach
the right user at the right time.
So in this new mobile world, connecting everybody
is really exciting.
And this is, for me, why I got into technology,
and I think for many of you as well.
So we know that people really want
to find great apps to connect with each other
and to really make the most of their lives
and enhance what they're doing on a daily basis.
And so with Google, we're really happy to be helping
users find these great experiences.
Connecting people with the apps and the information
that they're looking for so that they
can make the most of their devices and their lives.
So thank you to everyone here for helping
us build these experiences and being part of this new world.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
All right.
We'll take questions.
It would be great if you have a question if you could come up
to this microphone here or that microphone there.
No question.
Great.
Oh, wait.
One question.
We have one-- wait, maybe.
OK.
AUDIENCE: I'm actually interested in what
the future is for subscription billing in the Play store.
One thing we've noticed, and we had a big rollout of it
this year, is the lack of testing tools involved
in a namely sandbox testing.
It's actually really hard to test expiration
of subscriptions and also get data
on how many people are renewing and basically
what your turnover rate is, what your churn rate
is on subscriptions.
So I just wanted to see if you have
any plans on enhancing that [? future step. ?]
ELLIE POWERS: So it's really about trusting subscriptions?
Or were there some other figures there too
that you're wondering about.
AUDIENCE: Really just subscriptions.
I mean, right now you guys have really good tools
for just one-off consumable purchases in the in-app store.
But more, the subscriptions are lacking.
ELLIE POWERS: Yeah.
That's a great point.
I think it's a new product.
It's one that we've been really excited to see so much
take up of over the past year or so.
I think we've definitely heard the issues that you're
bringing up, especially around testing.
And we don't have anything to announce right now,
but we're definitely looking into it.
So thanks for raising that.
Yes.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
Thanks for your talk.
You mentioned Google Play for Education and the ability
to do bulk purchasing.
What about apps that are freemium with in-app purchases?
Do you have a timeline for being able to do bulk purchasing
on in-app purchases, either in Google Play for Education
or in general for businesses?
ELLIE POWERS: That's a great question.
I think as we're seeing more and more organizations being really
keen to adopt Android and Google Play
to distribute to their users, it's
becoming something that's more pertinent to what
these companies and schools are looking to do.
So we don't have anything to announce today.
But yes, I think we're looking into it
and we're aware that it's becoming
more and more of an issue, especially as we're
seeing more and more even educational apps moved
to a freemium model.
So we are definitely looking into it.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: I was wondering what the state or plans are
for a business-to-business app store,
such that we can do business-to-business apps that
are centrally managed, rather than delivered ad hoc.
ELLIE POWERS: Hmm.
So business-to-business store.
So I guess we're not announcing everything
yet about the new improvements that we're
making for Android on enterprise.
But probably the sorts of things that we're looking at
are a greater ability for, let's say,
an IT administrator at a company to take initiative
to make purchases of apps, or to decide which
apps can be available on users.
So maybe we can talk more about it afterwards,
but we're definitely looking at ways
that a company can say-- this is a software we want
to have available to our company, make that purchase,
and then distribute it out to the right people
in the company.
It's definitely something we're thinking a lot about as part
of these enterprise projects that we're doing.
AUDIENCE: OK, but specifically as far as custom
made applications, specifically for a client.
ELLIE POWERS: Oh, I see.
So something that's just a bespoke application for-- yeah,
we should probably talk offline about that.
Yeah.
Thanks.
Yes?
[? AUDIENCE: Exclusive ?] of all the countries which have
different RPU.
Like, in India, the ad pool is very low
as comparatively people do less in-app purchases.
So the only way to get the [? downwards ?]
is only the organic traffic.
And when we see the offering sections
and we see the radio sections of the store,
we see very different type of apps that should not be there.
You know that there is some problem there.
So is Google working out how to fix
the problem of getting more organic traffic
for the [? represent? ?] If the developers can hold
the logic behind this reason, you can get a better
organic traffic, or if you do this, then this would happen.
Because this is a very important question for the countries
where the RPU is very low.
ELLIE POWERS: Yeah.
So just to make sure I understand your question,
I think you're asking about what are we
doing to help getting organic traffic,
especially in markets where the RPU doesn't facilitate
spending a lot of money on paid user acquisition?
Yeah.
I think it's something where we're looking carefully
at how we can tune our algorithms best.
I think one of the trends that we've seen that's definitely
difficult is Google Play has become very popular.
There's many apps in store, and everyone
wants to make sure that they're getting
their share of that traffic.
So we've definitely been looking at ways to tune the store.
And I think when we talk about things
like doing user targeting, what we're hoping to do
is if I have a mobile device and my mother has a mobile device,
Google Play should offer us different things.
And so the great news there can mean that
rather than offering the same application to me
and my mother, if you offer us each a different application,
it's not a loss to any developer because an app
that I might want, she might not want, and vice versa.
So I hope through better personalization,
that's where we're going to be able to make
the most of the store real estate
so that we're surfacing only apps that the user is
likely to be interested in and not other apps.
But it is a big challenge.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: I have a question about the optimization
depreciation that Google Play dashboard.
So right now, it's only focused on the localization,
localizing this language and that language.
One thing in my experience I've seen
is that oftentimes the certain devices which
are popular in the geography.
So for example, in India, Micromax
is among the top 10 devices.
But in my list of devices, they feature
on the fifth or sixth number.
You know?
So can you share if my app is popular in a particular
geography, can the optimization tip be in a way
that you are populating [? Russia ?] you might as well.
But this phone, which is highest download in Russia,
is not in your top ten.
So I might as well optimize the presence for that.
ELLIE POWERS: Oh, OK.
So just to make sure I understand your question.
So you're saying if you're offering your app
in a certain market, you want to highlight which devices
might be more popular there?
AUDIENCE: I believe my distribution pattern
across devices should also shadow the overall distribution
better than the geography.
If I'm not, then I'm leaving money on the table, right?
ELLIE POWERS: I see.
Yeah, it's a good question.
Yeah, I think we definitely want to show which devices you have.
But I guess also it gets a little bit sensitive
because some of our partners may not necessarily
want to share overall statistics about that.
But I think it's a good question.
I think a common question that we hear from developers
is when they're moving into a new market,
they definitely want to be able to understand
which devices they're going to support, and to make
sure they're not, like you said, leaving money on the table.
So I think it's an interesting problem to figure out.
Maybe we could talk more about it later.
AUDIENCE: Can I have a follow-up question on the same?
Plus-one seems to be a big driver for us
for getting the organic traffic.
Intuitively it makes sense to recommend people
and to plus one the app when they are in a-- down the
funnel when they're three or four days into the process.
But some developers I talk with, they
say it's right at the outset if you ask them, they do it.
So when is the right time to push that request.
ELLIE POWERS: That's a great question.
I actually haven't looked at the data for that.
I think each developer will depend.
I've seen, I guess similar to you,
I've seen a couple developers and sometimes they say-- hey,
you've used this app for this long,
it looks like you're enjoying it,
would you mind giving us a rating?
So I think it will depend on your application,
but I haven't actually looked at the data for that
to see if there was an optimal time.
But I would guess it probably varies on the type of app
that you have.
If the user is very enthusiastic for your app,
then they're probably more happy to do it.
If they're in the middle of a task
and doing something that they consider to be very important,
that may be a distraction for them at that point.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: Hi.
It's not a question, but I'd just
like to hear your opinion about the gaming
category and the top-grossing list.
Once you have a strong title on the top-grossing,
it's very easy for you to cross-promote and create
other titles that go up in the same list.
And that makes this list very static.
So what are the chances for indie developers,
for new developers, gaming studios,
to launch games and reach this top-grossing in the gaming
category?
ELLIE POWERS: You know, I think if you look at games,
you're right that there are a lot of very big players
who are very successful.
But I think at the same time, there's always something new.
Flappy Bird, where did that come from?
Right?
Somehow that managed to get to the top.
So I think that's something that we
look at a lot, which is how do we
offer this balance between things that are trending,
things that are really new, and some people want
those sorts of things, and other people kind of want
the stuff that's really well-known big brands.
So I think we offer a variety of different charts
to be able to do that.
And then we're always looking at ways
to tweak those algorithms to make sure
that they're counting things right.
I think in terms of indie developers,
we do a lot of different special featuring programs there.
We put together a lot of groups of applications
of very high quality games that we actually call out
is-- these are indie games.
And so certain types of gamers are really interested
in that type of thing.
And again, I think a lot of it will come down
to the personalization whereas if we can find out
what sort of person likes your application,
then we can show it to that person, but maybe not to my mom
who might not like that type of game.
So I think it's definitely a big challenge.
You have a balance of big companies
who know what they're doing and are really, really strong
at being able to do a great marketing campaign
and building a great app.
And then also wanting to make sure
that the platform can remain responsive to new people who
are entering and making really exciting, different stuff.
Thank you.
AUDIENCE: I have a question about alternative Android app
store markets.
There are a few other ones besides the Play store.
You had mentioned with Google Analytics
that it ties in with the Play Store that's
installed on the device.
There's also other utilities that are just basic function
utilities of a person's cellphone.
Like for example, GCM.
So it seems that if I, as an Android developer,
want to be able to support a plethora
of different distribution channels,
I have to bend over backwards to be
able to support some core functionality like push
notifications or Google Analytics, which
is very robust.
And it doesn't currently-- it's not
supported on devices that were customized
for alternative stores.
And is this something that Google feels
is a problem or an unnecessary burden to developers?
And is there any direction of moving forward about unifying,
being able to create a solution that prevents people
like myself from having to have multiple versions,
different binaries that I'm submitting
to different locations?
ELLIE POWERS: Yeah, it's a good question.
I think-- one of the points that you mentioned
is that you have the flexibility on Android to create
a variety of binaries and to tailor them
based on the device or the market or the particular store.
There's a number of definite stores out there
that also offer analytics services
and other capabilities.
On one hand, you definitely have a lot of flexibility
there where you can create all these different binaries
and tailor each one to the stack of services
that you expect to have on that user's device.
I don't know.
It's a good question.
I haven't actually heard your exact question
before around how the Play Services connects
in those other environments.
I have to think about that.
I mean, I think usually what people
want to do is either create a very specific binary that's
integrated with what's happening in that alternative app store.
So I haven't actually heard about people saying
that they would want to try to use
Play Services with those other app stores
because I think-- again, depending on what market you're
looking at, those users may or may not even
have those services installed on their devices.
So it would depend.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
I think it's a particularly painful point
with push notification.
That can be something that's a challenge for especially
smaller development teams.
ELLIE POWERS: OK.
That's good feedback.
I've actually never heard that particular feedback before.
So thanks.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
ELLIE POWERS: All right.
All right.
Well, thank you, everybody.
I really appreciate all your time today
and all the questions.
Thanks.
[APPLAUSE]