Mobile App User Profiles Seldom Differ Across Categories and Countries

Mobile applications continue to grow in popularity as smartphone access expands globally. With just a few taps, consumers can order food, stream television shows or arrange a date. Decades of research on consumer goods have consistently shown that competing brands tend to attract similar user profiles; however, there is limited empirical evidence to suggest whether this pattern holds for mobile apps. To investigate whether this empirical generalisation holds, the usage behaviour of over 89 million smartphone users across Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong was examined. The data spanned 320 mobile applications across 36 diverse categories, which were tracked over four monthly periods. Analyses using both an individual consumer binary measure (visitor smartphone penetration) and a continuous measure (visitor share) reveal that competing mobile app user profiles seldom differ. User profiles were found to resemble the average app user profile more than the category user profile. These findings have implications for segmentation and media planning, offering valuable insights for marketing academics and various practitioners operating in digital environments that include standalone apps.