Results of 2021: Sergey Sharov from Asodesk about the main thing for the year
We continue to summarize the results of 2021 together with top managers and experts of the gaming industry (and related ones). Next up is an interview with Sergey Sharov, CEO and co-founder of Asodesk’s ASO solution and Angle Connect agency.
How did 2021 go for the company?
2021 was a productive year for Asodesk. This year the company celebrated 5 years since its commercial launch. In this regard, we have implemented a number of fundamental changes.
1. The company was rebranded. Now we are not just an ASO platform, but a whole ecosystem for promoting mobile applications. We have everything that game publishers need in the App Store and Google Play — tools for ASO, working with reviews, analyzing store data and game promotion results, researching competitors, preparing metadata and putting the game in the top by keywords. We also now help developers with the promotion of their applications and train ASO.
2. We have released professional tools for working with reviews. Now Asodesk customers can analyze and respond to reviews from app stores in one interface, automate the work of technical support, and integrate tools with ticket systems (for example, with Zendesk and Omnidesk).
3. Added new tools and upgraded existing ones. We have made new custom reports to analyze the results of promotion, added tools to track the dynamics of search positions in the App Store and Google Play, added the ability to translate keywords into English. We have also improved the algorithms of some metrics, thanks to which statistics in Asodesk have become even more accurate.
4. Completely changed the system interface. Now there are new navigation panels in Asodesk, and the design of some tools has become easier. This helps users navigate the system faster.
5. Actively worked with the information field. Our experts spoke at the WN Conference and App Promotion Summit USA. We held a Mobile Game Growth meetup in Moscow, organized 11 webinars with well—known experts, as well as 2 streams of the Asodesk Academy course, which helps to master the full cycle of ASO and become an ASO specialist.
I am pleased that our successes are noticed by reputable companies. In February, we received 8 badges from G2 (the largest IT marketplace), and in December we reached the final of the App Growth Awards in the ASO tools of the year nomination.
What event or trend of 2021 do you consider central within your niche?
I see 2 main trends:
1. The growing demand for systematic work with reviews in the App Store and Google Play from publishers of mobile games and applications. Competition among gaming applications is growing, new projects are constantly appearing. According to Statista, in September 2021, the number of games on Google Play reached almost 487 thousand, which is 50 thousand more than in 2020.
To attract users to the game, it is important to keep the rating at a high level. At the same time, working on ratings and reviews takes a lot of time from publishers. We need a single tool that will help automate this process.
At the request of users, we have added tools for analyzing and responding to reviews, as well as implemented automation of the support service. In their reviews, 1C and Tinkoff note that thanks to our tools, their work with reviews has become faster and more efficient.
2. Active development of Apple Search Ads. After the release of iOS 14.5 in April of this year, the share of Apple Search Ads is continuously growing and, according to Branch, exceeds 50% of the total volume of installations in the App Store.
In 2020, we launched the Angle Connect agency, whose core competence is Apple Search Ads. We have managed to develop a number of technologies that allow companies to scale this channel several times.
What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2022?
1. We plan to further develop opportunities for analysis and responses to feedback. I want our tools to be useful not only to support specialists, but also to help product managers better understand user needs and find ideas for project development faster.
2. We will work on strengthening the expertise in Apple Search Ads, including technological expertise. We want to improve technologies so that our customers’ indicators become better and better.
3. We will continue to develop ASO and competitor analysis tools. We plan to close as many issues facing our clients as possible.
