App Strategy
Apps Gratia Appis
Current strategy
Understand our users: Qualitative and quantitative research about our readers
Improve
encyclopedia experience
Engagement and retention in current experiences
Reach new readers in the “Global South”
Collaborative and interactive experiences
EXISTING USERS
NEW MEMBERS
Reach
new readers
Interactivity
with new experiences
Strategic Initiatives
NEW READERS
Based on Foundational Work
Services: Build out services to support new experiences across all channels
In the last year
… and more...
According to users...
Bottoms up
Both app teams perform a product self-evaluation on 8 dimensions (scores are avg out of 10)
PLATFORM | APPY | STICKY | RESPONSIVE | PRIVATE | POLISHED | ENGINEERED | FEATURED | ACCESSIBLE |
iOS | 7.25 | 7.5 | 6.75 | 8.25 | 7.25 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 8 |
Android | 7 | 3.25 | 3.75 | 5.75 | 7 | 7.5 | 6.7 | 4.7 |
Additionally the teams voted on priorities they have for Q1 and Q2, winners included:
By the numbers
ANDROID PAGEVIEWS
iOS PAGEVIEWS
1.1% of all pageviews (June 2017)
0.5% of all pageviews (June 2017)
By the numbers (cont)
ANDROID 7 DAY RETENTION
iOS 7 DAY RETENTION
Are the apps a “success”?
Great press and partner feedback
Strong momentum
Productive teams
Good research results and user reviews
Integrate design and do it with style
Leading edge of tech modernization
The best experience
Audience is small relative to our web traffic
Audience is stagnant
Specialized development
Quality control is different and difficult
Still controversial in some quarters
Limited editing
(it’s a Wikipedia app, not a wiki)
YES
NO
Opportunities
Wikipedia’s app usage is significantly lower than news app usage.
We believe we offer a great reading experience for high affinity readers. But they need to know about the app.
Are readers going elsewhere?
Three highest ranking Wikipedia focused apps on Android and iOS share a few core features, which our apps also include, although in some cases the “completeness” of our feature is comparatively poor.
APP | DOWN- LOADS | OFFLINE | NEARBY | CUSTOM UX | LISTS |
| 1M-5M | x | x | x | x |
| 500K-1M | x | x | x | x |
| 500K-1M | x | | | x |
APP | RANK | OFFLINE | NEARBY | CUSTOM UX | LISTS |
| ~200 | x | x | x | x |
| ~400 | x | x | x | x |
| ~700 | x | x | x | x |
Wikidata Properties
Are we capturing new installers?
We are near benchmarks for users who do come to install, although there is potential in further localization and market message testing:
Awareness
Without Google to send initial pageview, users must discover the app on their own. When asked, during the 2014 consultation about where the foundation should focus for the future, Mobile Apps were the number one request among anonymous users, even though, at the time, the apps existed:
That hasn’t changed:
Awareness channels
CHANNEL | PROS | CONS | EFFECTIVE? |
Wikipedia | We are sitting on ~1B monthly users who already use our product... | Community concerns likely. Need to be clear and reasoned about who the apps are for and what value they provide users and the movement. | Yes |
Stores | Relatively cheap | Requires BD. Sometimes require technical effort. Limited duration. | Yes, but very short term |
Preloads | Leverage brand for free placement | Shrinking market, requires BD, retention unknown, increasingly savvy users do not use preloaded apps - test with Ironsource going now | TBD |
Press | Record of success, impact on iOS | Requires comms/PR firm. Requires product focus on new features. Not impactful on Android. | Mixed, but very short term |
Platform integration | Provides a built in mechanism for discovery. | Beyond what exists, requires significant BD effort and value for partner. | TBD |
Who are
apps for?
For high affinity readers
For news readers
For new readers
For new contributors
For existing editors?
For our technical ecosystem
For the Foundation
For the way we work
For the mission, of course
Photo by Mauro Mora via Unsplash (CC0)
Who should we build our apps for?
People who love Wikipedia, even if they don’t know it yet. They are curious, want to learn and see the app as a way to understand their world, rabbit hole on their interests, and pass the time while mobile.
Photo by Raw Pixel via Unsplash (CC0)
What do we do for them?
Provide real value by enriching their daily lives with knowledge, making learning from free sources a habit woven into their days. The people who love to learn and regularly read Wikipedia deserve an app that loves them back. An app always there with an interesting suggestion or an in depth dive on the latest news. They want to hear from us when someone important dies. They want to wake up and find out what the rest of the world is curious about. The apps can do that.
Apps are for lovers
Photo by Luke Porter via Unsplash (CC0)
I’ve always loved Wikipedia, since it started popping up in search results back in the day. I didn’t know they had an app, but I saw a banner on their site when I was browsing some articles about the crazy events happening in our world.
I love the app, I check the feed on my commute, and particularly love the mix of news-y stuff and really random stuff I’d never have searched for on my own. The personal recommendations are meh, though. I really like how I can see something I want to read later, and add it my reading list to pick up on my tablet at home. I have like a hundred articles saved up!
From using the app, I also feel like I understand wikipedia better than when I just got to it from Google searches. In this time of fake news, and where everyone tracks what you read to sell you stuff, I really appreciate having a free source of non-commercial information at my fingertips.
How many people love Wikipedia?
We don’t know. But as a first estimate, we started by looking at devices on the mobile web site which already visited yesterday.
English Wikipedia (en.m.wikipedia.org) is about 8-10 million per day.
For Spanish, 1-2 million.
Compare to e.g. the 1.1 million daily active users of the Android app.
DAILY ACTIVE USERS
Audience awareness impacts
So each day millions of devices visit wikis they also visited yesterday. If we could target users returning within the next day, how would the apps grow?
Daily Install Funnel
Additional users on Day 1
Features for lovers
Q1
Q2
H2
Many of the features developed in the last year will be ported across platforms and
studied, refined and iterated.
Apps are for news readers
Photo by Toa Heftibar via Unsplash (CC0)
2nd stop on the 2nd screen
Media and events are significant motivators of use
In the Knight study of news consumption, we are not the source of news, we are the second stop.
The need to fact check everything, means having Wikipedia on hand (ie. on a tablet or phone) while consuming other media.
This is exactly why mobile is called the “second screen”.
Filling this need is both mission aligned, timely and potentially very impactful. But, we have a lot to learn here.
Features for news readers
Q1
Q2
H2
How do we reach them?
Target announcements on wiki based on specific target audiences, and their likely affinity for app usage based on specific behaviors.
Examples of targets and messaging around specific features based on observed usage:
Consider working with non-en language communities with high app/smartphone usage and some endemic interest in supporting apps. For example JA, KO, ZH, and some western european languages.
Learn more about what’s happening today in your world.
Our app makes it easy.
Download the Wikipedia app today.
Apps are for new readers
Photo by Ntsika Lain via Wikimedia Commons (CC by-SA 3.0)
Who could get through grad school without Wikipedia?! But I’m a student, and I don’t have any money to spare on data plans. So, I planned to download all the articles about this semester’s classes, while I’m connected to the school wifi. I was saving articles to my SD card by printing them to PDFs. It worked okay, but they were a pain to download one at a time, and hard to search through.
During one of my download marathons, a banner popped up for the Wikipedia app, and it's saved article libraries. Once I saw you could download entire collections of articles about a topic, I got the app downloaded a bunch of stuff for school. Now I use the app for homework or just learning more without using any data, and when I need to look up something I haven’t downloaded I can use the same app while I’m on my school WIFI.
Photo by ilaya raja via Unsplash (CC0)
New readers features
Q1
Q2
The apps teams also are working with New Readers to determine the best way to partner with Kiwix, the incumbent non-commercial offline Wikipedia app.
How do we reach them?
Target announcements on wiki based on specific workflows which are likely to be usds by new readers. Use context information like country and connection speed to identify users who might benefit from the apps.
Examples of targets and messaging around specific features based on tasks include:
Work with New Readers program and communities with zero support and community interest, to raise awareness of offline capabilities of the apps.
Saving articles to read them later?
Our app makes it easy to read Wikipedia offline.
Download the Wikipedia app today.
Apps are for new contributors
Photo by Jason Ortego via Unsplash (CC0)
I always read Wikipedia’s pages on my favorite shows but I didn’t really care about editing it. When you click on editing on your computer it looks like something I’d use for school work. I also used the app, since I like to read on my tablet, and noticed you could edit the little description under the title. That seemed like a lot less work, and many of the descriptions were missing in Korean (though I often read the English articles because there are so many more of them about everything). After I realized the mobile editing was a lot simpler, I started adding citations. Now, when I see the citation needed banner, I’ll open Google and Wikipedia open side by side, and find the link to add. It’s easy, and I like helping other people learn about the shows I love.
Kyong, 22 yo Casual Editor from the Republic of Korea
Photo by Jody Hong via Unsplash (CC0)
Features for new contributors
In late 2016, Jon Katz and the Android team engaged in an on-wiki consultation about over a dozen potential mobile contribution features. The upcoming annual plan includes Program 3, which will deliver 1-2 additional contribution features in the apps. The community favorites included:
Wikidata Properties
Wikilabels for ORES
Add Nearby Images
Thank the Editors
Apps are for mobile editors?
Photo by Joshua Newton via Unsplash (CC0)
Most platforms provide full editing functionality on mobile via apps. Apps provide the best user experience and performance for complex tasks like WYSIWYG editing on mobile devices:
Apps are for our tech ecosystem
Photo by Victorgrigas via Wikimedia Commons
Apps enforce a separation between clients and data and provide an in-house customer for a platform agnostic and interface neutral stack:
Apps also provide a place for people with mobile app expertise and interest to contribute. Both apps regularly receive contributions from multiple volunteers in each major release.
All the knowledge for all the people...
MediaWiki
m.
Apps
All the knowledge for all the people...
Services (build once)
Web
Apps
m.
MediaWiki
Web
The next mobiles
Apps are for the Foundation
For the Foundation
Apps are for the way we work
The apps have been delivering significant and well received improvements over the last 18 months. That’s what we care about. But we’ve also worked to level up the way we build software at the foundation, with a particular commitment to listening to our users, and working to integrate qualitative and quantitative data into our work.
Clearly identifying our audience, trying to understand them, working across product, design and engineering to give users the software they want.
Apps are for the mission
Photo by Niccolo Caranti via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
1. Why build apps?
2. But, why can apps do that?
3. But, why does that matter for the mission?
I only got 3 why’s deep.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯