According to W3i, the average cost per user for mobile apps has risen significantly in the past few months. Analytics firm specializing in mobile app monetization says the average cost per user on Android has edged up from 30 cents to 51 cents, or 70 percent. Costs for Apple’s App Store users have gone up from 59 cents to 92 cents, an increase of 56 percent.
“The entire user acquisition market is undergoing a sea change that will require mobile developers to re-think how they obtain and monetize their users,” said Robert Weber, co-founder of W3i. “This could be the ‘innovate or die’ moment for a lot of developers as the competition for mobile users continues to heat up.”
W3i attributes much of the rising costs to groups like DeNA, which are investing heavily in the market. This is quickly becoming an issue for smaller indie developers, who could very well be priced out of the competition thanks in part to the expansion of larger developers and publishers into the mobile space.
