I was trying to watch a show on a paid streaming service through my phone, but the webpage doesn’t let me use my browser, I have to download an app to run a video. Which got me thinking “why?” What is a good reason they won’t let me watch using my browser and would force me to download an app?
P.S. I can’t login right now, that’s why downloading the app is so inconvinient
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There’s a lot of research that says that users spend most of their time on phones in apps, not on mobile web. This research spurred a lot of companies to make apps, because that sounded like the way to get usage time. Subsequent research revealed that all that time spent in apps was just in the small number of popular apps (social media/messaging primarily) and not in your terrible pizza ordering app.
An app user is more likely to choose your company over competitors, so that “lock in” is another likely point of value. But it’s hard to tell cause from effect for those users: did downloading the app make them heavy users, or did only heavy users get the app?
I think a surprising amount of corporate strategy is just doing what everyone else is doing and hoping you don’t lose market share.
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