"ASO-optimization and packaging of games in stores have become a basic part for most gaming companies," Anatoly Sharifulin from AppFollow about the main thing for 2022

We summed up the results of last year together with Anatoly Sharifulin, CEO and co-founder of AppFollow. He spoke about the difficulties faced by the company, as well as about the key changes in the ASO market.

Tell us what the year was like for you personally, where are you now, were there any things that you finally managed to realize and are proud of?

For me personally, last year was full of events and changes, for which I was not ready in any way. It seems that we managed to adjust to the current situation, maintain motivation, energy and work/life balance. I am in the same place where I was a year ago — in Finland. In 2022, my family and I received a permanent permit, having lived for five years on a visa A. If you pass the language exam, you can get a passport, but I didn’t even start learning the language.

I can be proud of the fact that I started actively using the Goodreads service and reading business literature. At the moment, I have read six of the eight books planned for the year, and I plan to finish reading the remaining two in a few days. In 2021, I read only two, — multiple growth per face. Books that have completely changed my attitude to work and company management: “Leader and Tribe” (Tribal Leadership), “High-performance Management” (High Output Management) and “It won’t be Easy. How to Build a Business when there are More Questions than Answers” (The Hard Things About Hard Thing).

What was the year like for the company? What have you done, implemented, and what in general would I like to highlight in terms of achievements?

The year was “wonderful”, “predictable” and unforgettable. But seriously, everything that we planned and hoped for did not happen. In short, then:

• at the beginning of the year, a new investment round (Series B) did not happen, although our bet was on it, which was confirmed by the growth in the previous year;
• in the second and third quarters, we focused on relocating employees (we had 60 people in Russia);
• Most of the employees were transferred to Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Finland and other countries. The others who could not move had to be separated;
• after that, we focused on retaining and rallying the team, because for most employees it was stressful, and some still haven’t decided on a permanent location and are still in this state;
• they completely closed the Russian business, refusing to work with those clients who continue to operate only in Russia. Closed LLC;
• now we are working on stabilizing growth, because it has sunk a lot because of the whole situation that has arisen.

How has the ASO market changed over the year?

ASO-optimization and packaging of games in app stores have become a basic part for most gaming companies, regardless of their size. The market has formed an understanding that such things are important. This became especially clear after the changes related to traffic attribution.

Personally, I am glad that positions like Senior ASO Expert or ASO Team Lead appeared, and popular ASO services and tools began to be specified in the requirements for positions. This tells me about the maturity of the market.

The second change is the average rating and working with reviews (Review Management) from app stores have become a necessary part not only for product and support teams, but also for ASO specialists with marketing managers.

The third change is that the App Store Connect and Google Play Console have aligned in terms of capabilities, the long—awaited A/B testing has also appeared for iOS games. In addition, other app stores have become noticeable on the market: the most popular request from our customers is Huawei’s AppGallery.

Has the practice of working with gaming companies changed? What are the main trends in ASO that you would highlight at the moment?

According to my feelings, many gaming companies have moved to Cyprus or at least opened a representative office there. Now the WN Conference Cyprus will become a key event for meetings with gaming companies and customers.

There is still a request for more and more analytics, automation and simple reporting on ASO and working with reviews, because everyone is already used to the current capabilities. This is what we plan to focus on in AppFollow this year.

There is also a trend for paid advertising in the app stores themselves — Search Ads and Google Ads. In 2023-24, the market is waiting for the development of tools for automation of advertising settings and reporting.