An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective

Haoyu Wang; Zhe Liu; Yao Guo; Xiangqun Chen; Miao Zhang; Guoai Xu; Jason Hong

doi:10.1145/3038912.3052712

An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective

Haoyu Wang
, Zhe Liu
, Yao Guo^*
, Xiangqun Chen
, Miao Zhang
, Guoai Xu
, Jason Hong

^*Corresponding author for this work

Beijing Key Laboratory of Intelligent Telecommunication Software and Multimedia
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
Peking University
Carnegie Mellon University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

With the prevalence of smartphones, app markets such as Apple App Store and Google Play has become the center stage in the mobile app ecosystem, with millions of apps developed by tens of thousands of app developers in each major market. This paper presents a study of the mobile app ecosystem from the perspective of app developers. Based on over one million Android apps and 320,000 developers from Google Play, we analyzed the Android app ecosystem from different aspects. Our analysis shows that while over half of the developers have released only one app in the market, many of them have released hundreds of apps. We classified developers into different groups based on the number of apps they have released, and compared their characteristics. Specially, we have analyzed the group of aggressive developers who have released more than 50 apps, trying to understand how and why they create so many apps. We also investigated the privacy behaviors of app developers, showing that some developers have a habit of producing apps with low privacy ratings. Our study shows that understanding the behavior of mobile developers can be helpful to not only other app developers, but also to app markets and mobile users.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017
Publisher	International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee
Pages	163-172
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Print)	9781450349130
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3038912.3052712
State	Published - 2017
Externally published	Yes
Event	26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017 - Perth, Australia Duration: 3 Apr 2017 → 7 Apr 2017

Publication series

Name	26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017

Conference

Conference	26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Perth
Period	3/04/17 → 7/04/17

Keywords

Android
App clone
App developers
App ecosystem
Google Play
Mobile apps
Mobile privacy

Access to Document

10.1145/3038912.3052712

Cite this

Wang, H., Liu, Z., Guo, Y., Chen, X., Zhang, M., Xu, G., & Hong, J. (2017). An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective. In 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017 (pp. 163-172). Article 3052712 (26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017). International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee. https://doi.org/10.1145/3038912.3052712

@inproceedings{543f12f3b2664a1387092564c50255a0,

title = "An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers{\textquoteright} perspective",

abstract = "With the prevalence of smartphones, app markets such as Apple App Store and Google Play has become the center stage in the mobile app ecosystem, with millions of apps developed by tens of thousands of app developers in each major market. This paper presents a study of the mobile app ecosystem from the perspective of app developers. Based on over one million Android apps and 320,000 developers from Google Play, we analyzed the Android app ecosystem from different aspects. Our analysis shows that while over half of the developers have released only one app in the market, many of them have released hundreds of apps. We classified developers into different groups based on the number of apps they have released, and compared their characteristics. Specially, we have analyzed the group of aggressive developers who have released more than 50 apps, trying to understand how and why they create so many apps. We also investigated the privacy behaviors of app developers, showing that some developers have a habit of producing apps with low privacy ratings. Our study shows that understanding the behavior of mobile developers can be helpful to not only other app developers, but also to app markets and mobile users.",

keywords = "Android, App clone, App developers, App ecosystem, Google Play, Mobile apps, Mobile privacy",

author = "Haoyu Wang and Zhe Liu and Yao Guo and Xiangqun Chen and Miao Zhang and Guoai Xu and Jason Hong",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2).; 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017 ; Conference date: 03-04-2017 Through 07-04-2017",

year = "2017",

doi = "10.1145/3038912.3052712",

language = "英语",

isbn = "9781450349130",

series = "26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017",

publisher = "International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee",

pages = "163--172",

booktitle = "26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017",

}

Wang, H, Liu, Z, Guo, Y, Chen, X, Zhang, M, Xu, G & Hong, J 2017, An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective. in 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017., 3052712, 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017, International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, pp. 163-172, 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017, Perth, Australia, 3/04/17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3038912.3052712

An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective. / Wang, Haoyu; Liu, Zhe; Guo, Yao et al.
26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017. International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2017. p. 163-172 3052712 (26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective

AU - Wang, Haoyu

AU - Liu, Zhe

AU - Guo, Yao

AU - Chen, Xiangqun

AU - Zhang, Miao

AU - Xu, Guoai

AU - Hong, Jason

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - With the prevalence of smartphones, app markets such as Apple App Store and Google Play has become the center stage in the mobile app ecosystem, with millions of apps developed by tens of thousands of app developers in each major market. This paper presents a study of the mobile app ecosystem from the perspective of app developers. Based on over one million Android apps and 320,000 developers from Google Play, we analyzed the Android app ecosystem from different aspects. Our analysis shows that while over half of the developers have released only one app in the market, many of them have released hundreds of apps. We classified developers into different groups based on the number of apps they have released, and compared their characteristics. Specially, we have analyzed the group of aggressive developers who have released more than 50 apps, trying to understand how and why they create so many apps. We also investigated the privacy behaviors of app developers, showing that some developers have a habit of producing apps with low privacy ratings. Our study shows that understanding the behavior of mobile developers can be helpful to not only other app developers, but also to app markets and mobile users.

AB - With the prevalence of smartphones, app markets such as Apple App Store and Google Play has become the center stage in the mobile app ecosystem, with millions of apps developed by tens of thousands of app developers in each major market. This paper presents a study of the mobile app ecosystem from the perspective of app developers. Based on over one million Android apps and 320,000 developers from Google Play, we analyzed the Android app ecosystem from different aspects. Our analysis shows that while over half of the developers have released only one app in the market, many of them have released hundreds of apps. We classified developers into different groups based on the number of apps they have released, and compared their characteristics. Specially, we have analyzed the group of aggressive developers who have released more than 50 apps, trying to understand how and why they create so many apps. We also investigated the privacy behaviors of app developers, showing that some developers have a habit of producing apps with low privacy ratings. Our study shows that understanding the behavior of mobile developers can be helpful to not only other app developers, but also to app markets and mobile users.

KW - Android

KW - App clone

KW - App developers

KW - App ecosystem

KW - Google Play

KW - Mobile apps

KW - Mobile privacy

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85048716657

U2 - 10.1145/3038912.3052712

DO - 10.1145/3038912.3052712

M3 - 会议稿件

AN - SCOPUS:85048716657

SN - 9781450349130

T3 - 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017

SP - 163

EP - 172

BT - 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017

PB - International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee

T2 - 26th International World Wide Web Conference, WWW 2017

Y2 - 3 April 2017 through 7 April 2017

ER -

An explorative study of the mobile app ecosystem from app developers’ perspective

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this