Japan retains new apps, while China deletes: Research

Apps in Japan have the highest user retention rate of all major markets, according to mobile marketing firm Adjust’s Mobile Benchmarks 2018 report, released today.

The study assessed retention, sessions and events per user across China, Japan, Russia, the US, the UK, France, Germany and Turkey. Last year saw the launch of around 2 million apps. Retention, while a constant challenge for app producers, increased on the previous year.

The report found Japan, the US and Russia start with 30% retention the first day after installation. After 30 days, retention dips below 15% in the US and Russia, but hovers around 17% in Japan.

App usage in China stands in stark contrast to those markets. Just 7% of users continue to use an app after seven days. After 30 days, usage tails off to below 5%. Adjust speculated that this was due mostly to the dominance of WeChat, which meant users were less likely to entertain other apps, and also the “mixture of quality” of other apps.

Retention of new apps over time, by market

At the same time, when it comes to the number of sessions on apps, Japan goes against the trend of the other three major markets. Sessions typically increase in China, the US and in particular Russia between day one and day 30, which Adjust attributes to the loss of less-engaged users. But in Japan, both users and sessions decrease, from an average of 2.57 to 2.46.

Overall, utility apps drove the highest number of sessions, followed by games, entertainment, ecommerce, business and travel. Based on the percentage of installs it rejected last year, Adjust noted that gaming apps have the highest instance of fraudulent activity: nearly 35%. It attributed this to high marketing spend and the efforts of users themselves to defraud games. Fraud was shown to be twice as likely to occur on Android devices than iOS.

Retention of new apps over time, by category