Success Story – The Economist Global Business Review

By Antony ChangLast Updated on Oct 8, 2019
Success Story – The Economist Global Business Review

Intro

The Economist Global Business Review is a bilingual (Chinese & English) weekly publication that publishes informative articles offering deep insight and sharp perspective on key trends shaping the global business, finance and technology community.

Status

When The Economist made contact about launching Global Business Review in China, we discovered that:

  • The app was only being published on 7 of the top 20 Chinese app stores, therefore missing out on roughly 35% of the market.
  • The app required additional documentation to continue being published in China.
  • The app’s format didn’t completely meet the app stores’ updated requirements.

Challenge

Our main goals were to help source all the extra documentation needed to publish the app on the remaining stores, advise on the necessary format readjustment, manage the 7 app stores where the app was already distributed and publish the app to 10 more of the top 20 stores.

Due to regulations placed on Western media companies in China becoming stricter, the remaining app stores were hesitant to accept the app and requested multiple certifications to complete distribution.

Additionally, the current app stores insisted on modifying the monthly-payment format to keep the app live on their stores.

This made uploading and maintaining the app a long and arduous task that required constant liaison with The Economist, the app stores and various local bureaus to allow the app to fully comply with regulations.

Outcome

  • The necessary documentation was obtained and the monthly-payment format was adjusted to fit the app stores’ regulations.
  • The app was distributed to all the additional app stores within 4 weeks (project began in late-March 2017 and “full delivery” was made in early-May 2017).
  • Since being published, the app has achieved more than 332,000 organic downloads.

Feedback

“We needed an organized entry strategy for the market, as one of the main obstacles that we faced was not being aware of the file requirements and regulations before we submitted. An agency with rich experience in the Chinese app market, feasible action-plan and responsible account managers was necessary for us. AppInChina stood out to be the best option, as they showed us that they were proficient in 20+ store management, detailed reporting and ad-hoc project advising. Their insightful research, constructive advice and strong relationships with the local stores made the entire process go smoothly, which helped us save time and development resources and provided us with a wider space to grow and increase our brand awareness.”

Jing Zhang – Marketing Manager at The Economist Global Business Review

“AppInChina were very helpful in collating information from the different app-stores to provide download, review and trend data. This helped us to focus on the core issues and adjust our releases.
Overall, AppInChina has been very insightful and saved us time and effort.”

Sandeep Asrani – Head of Mobile Engineering, The Economist