Short presentation on business models for STM apps from the CSE's "Journal Apps: To Do or Not to Do" webinar in Feb 2011.

1. Mobile business models Euan Adie Senior Product Manager, nature.com

2. Are scientists using mobile devices for work? Source: Nature Publishing Group market survey Jan ‘11 Yes

3. What kind of numbers? Assume 8m scientists & related professionals ~ 30% have smartphones ~ 1% have tablets Around ~ 20% smartphones run iOS ~ 90% tablets run iOS

4. What is NPG doing? Two part approach: Apps Mobile optimized website Don’t do an app instead of a website; need to complement each other

5. NPG’s initial offering Stream of news & research Ability to filter stream in return for registration Can read full text on device if you have a personal subscription Sync bookmarks back to nature.com website iOS only

6. iPhone app http://itunes.com/apps/naturecom Released in Feb 2010

7. iPad app http://itunes.com/apps/naturecomreader Released in Jan 2011

8. Monetization Direct Selling the app (one off fee) Renting the app (monthly, annual fee) Advertising & sponsorship Selling subscriptions Selling fixed bundles of content (single articles, single issues, specials…) Indirect Add value to existing subscriptions, site licenses Demographic & preferences data from users

11. Demographics Problem with site license access – can’t identify end users on website App proposition is clear: we allow personalization, to do that we need to know who you are Email lists (if user opted-in) Cross platform targeted advertising (later) Business intelligence

12. Advertising App sponsorship – handy at launch when you don’t have numbers to tell advertisers iAds – disappointing fill rates Own sales team – STM advertisers aren’t necessarily as ready to go mobile Reporting challenges – does your app work offline, if so do your ads?

13. Subscriptions NPG offers: Site license access Personal subscriptions (print + web + mobile) Mobile subscriptions (no print, no web) Mobile subs are low cost ($8.99 a month,$69.99 a year vs $150 for personal sub) We pitch them as “taster” subscriptions.

14. Differences Is the market for mobile subs different to personal subs? Cheaper More visible to people who don’t visit the nature.com website frequently For NPG, conversion rate is much higher on mobile. But prices lower.

15. Issues with mobile subscriptions In-app purchase rules: must sell through in-app purchase, must be same price or cheaper than alternative systems Currency conversion, tax withholding is always handled by Apple Refunds also handled by Apple – they deduct full price from your earnings i.e. they still keep their 30% cut

16. Single article sales Technical considerations In-app purchase requires every product to be registered with Apple, max ~30k products Rules around “tokens” and generic products a bit fuzzy If users buy an article then may expect to “own” it - be able to save, access it across all platforms

17. Adding value to existing subs Personal subs at NPG include mobile access Considering how best to approach site license access If they can access it on the website user expect to access it on mobile

18. Site license access Two routes Shibboleth IP authentication IP authentication could be Through wifi on campus Through a VPN Using ezproxy (configured in the app settings)

19. COUNTER logging Need to count reads not caches How to account for offline usage? Seems to be some confusion – industry bodies still catching up to differences between web & apps