Design for Social Sharing: The Case of Mobile Apps

With millions of mobile apps available today, app developers find it challenging to generate consumer demand. The problem is particularly pronounced in the tail of the demand distribution, where the lack of awareness may deter a high-quality niche app from being successful. App developers can develop new features, incorporate social features to share information about their apps, and increase their relative demand. We evaluate the effect of social and nonsocial or intrinsic features on the demand for apps on the iOS platform. Our findings suggest that only niche apps can increase their demand by incorporating social features. We also find that social features that allow sharing on platforms with large audiences and stronger ties among users, such as Facebook, are most effective. Additionally, social features can increase the demand for all apps when these are introduced along with less common intrinsic features. However, low-quality niche apps should refrain from sharing information about such features on platforms with low tie strength, as this may hurt the demand. Our results demonstrate how social and intrinsic features can have a different impact on the demand of the apps based on their popularity.