Interview with Opera Mobile Store

In connection with the purchase of AdColony by the Opera Mediaworks advertising platform, we are publishing an interview with the Opera Mobile Store, which was kindly provided to us by Xsolla.

The questions were answered by Sandra Ilyina, Director of Sales at Opera Mediaworks, and Vyacheslav Shibaev, manager of the Opera Mobile Store.

Sandra Ilyina and Vyacheslav Shibaev

What is the Opera Mobile Store?

Sandra Ilyina: Opera Mobile Store (OMS) is a cross-platform store of mobile applications and games for J2ME, Symbian, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. The platform also provides users with access to mobile online games for the aforementioned systems.

How does the Opera Mobile Store earn money?

Vyacheslav Shibaev: Last year we experimented with different models of distribution of paid content: one-time purchases, day-pass access, subscriptions. Today we distribute paid content by subscription — this model has shown the best result and has been chosen as the most effective and profitable method of distributing paid applications. Nevertheless, advertising remains the most effective source of profit for the Opera Mobile Store.

Why do developers come to the Opera Mobile Store?

Sandra Ilyina: The presence on the market cannot be limited to native stores only. Many developers understand the importance of being present at the largest app stores. The Opera mobile app store ranks fourth in terms of traffic in the world. More than 105 million people visit the store every month. Developers, partners of the Opera Mobile Store, can allow users to download applications directly from Google Play and the App Store in order to achieve higher positions in the search results of leading mobile content sites.

What is the situation on the mobile app market?

Sandra Ilyina: This is a highly competitive market. Google Play and the App Store offer more than 1 million apps each. In 2013, the use of mobile applications increased by 115% compared to 2012. Today, consumers are using mobile apps more often than ever. Experts predict that by 2016, 94.5% of all downloads will come from free apps. Already, most of the applications presented in the stores are not profitable. Nevertheless, thousands of mobile developers receive income from IAP. The most popular mobile applications at the moment are in the categories messengers and social networks, followed by utilities. Substantial profits are generated by games that offer users the opportunity to interact with other players. Significant factors in increasing the profitability of applications are increasing the "visibility" of the product in the appstore and, of course, creating a really interesting and addictive application. It is also important to remember the need to create the most intuitive payment interface inside the application.

Which markets do you consider the most interesting for mobile app developers? 

Sandra Ilyina: Previously, the priority regions for mobile app distribution with the highest ROI were the United States and Western Europe. Now many developers are trying to expand their reach to Asia and other emerging markets. Despite the fact that users from these countries have less purchasing power, developers simply cannot ignore the billions of people who are ready to participate in the monetization of the application with their money. Developed markets are oversaturated with good products, while developing markets are growing rapidly and are ready to accept new, little-known applications. The freemium model is particularly successful in these countries.

What should you pay attention to in order to make the product the most attractive to the consumer? Which monetization model works best for programs and games on smartphones right now? 

Sandra Ilyina: According to statistics, 95% of Android users do not buy paid applications (unlike iOS users). The best option for an Android application is a shareware product with built—in micropayments. Interesting games and social apps generate more profit than paid apps that require a one-time purchase.

How do you handle payments with IAP? How is the profit distributed? Do you work with alternative billing solutions?

Vyacheslav Shibaev: Opera Mobile Store operates in 230 countries. In some of them, we have direct billing from a mobile operator. This allows subscribers to make app purchases (or pay for a subscription to access content) directly from their mobile account, which is very convenient for users. Developers working with OMS can choose any IAP payment mechanism for their applications. We have no specific restrictions on this issue.

How many users visit the Opera Mobile Store per day, how many registered users do you have, and what proportion of this audience makes purchases in the store?

Vyacheslav Shibaev: 2 million people visit us every day. No user registration is required, which makes the Opera Mobile Store extremely easy to use. As part of the Opera Mini ecosystem, the Opera app store is integrated into the browser platform and is also accessible from any other mobile browsers.

Tell us a little about the range of Opera Mobile Store. There are more than half a million apps out there today. Which product categories are most widely represented? What types of applications are downloaded most often? 

Vyacheslav Shibaev: The audience of the Opera Mobile Store is still young. Our users are mainly interested in games: racing, shooters, "3 in a row". The most popular categories of applications in the store are "Utilities" and "Communications".

What problems do you see for alternative stores?

Vyacheslav Shibaev: The most important task for any app store is the ability to easily and quickly find high-quality and really necessary content for the user. The rapid growth in the number of mobile products has its negative consequences: it is becoming increasingly difficult for users to get exactly the program they need. The ideal app store of the future should offer an easy way to find interesting and really necessary products for the user. Social sharing is expected to be the most promising method of discovering new applications. The long-term development plan for the Opera Mobile Store includes features for social sharing of information about applications. We are also working on the implementation of other social app discovery tools and an innovative radically new user interface for the Opera Mobile Store.

Thank you for your time and good luck in future projects.

Kirill Tokarev was talking