G Style English - iOS study application

Description

We developed and launched in the iOS app store a study application that leveraged the popularity of our award winnning iTunes English language learning podcast to provide a richer study experience for learners and generate revenue for the organisation. After a slow start the application payment model was revised significantly to increase revenue.

Objective

The G-Style podcast was an iTunes video podcast launched by Gaba in the late 2000’s to increase awareness of the company. The podcast featured a host discussing a skit acted out by Gaba instructors in English and the language points from the dialogue. The podcast was a massive hit, with millions of downloads every week and consistently featuring in iTunes awards for best video podcast in Japan. With the advent of iphones and smart applications, the company decided to launch a smartphone and test the water in trying to monetize the podcast through this new channel.

My role

I was manager of the section responsible for the development and content creation and therefore acted as default Product Manager for this application. I took this position in 2012 and this was one of the first new tech projects that was undertaken - I had been a content creator on the team for four years until this point. I led an internal team of content developers coordinating with an internal IT colleague and a third party app developer to launch this app, keep it updated, and perform a version upgrade changing the payment model and improving the functionality.

Build

We outsourced the development to a third party vendor in Tokyo. There was no requirement to integrate with the internal Gaba systems, but we had an internal IT colleague join the project team in an advisory capacity. As the podcast was dissemintated in Apple’s iTunes platform exlusively, we built an iPhone application.

Challenges

I was new to the role as section manager when this initiative got under way and there was considerable interest in the project from management and staff and I found it challenging to exert influence over the design of the application. In this new environment I allowed things to play out and we launched a functional app into the iOS app store. However, the payment model was not successful and despite the millions of downloads per month for the podcast, the app only generated revenue in the 10-100,000 JPY range per month. In 2016 I oversaw a change to the payment model increasing the freemium layer and improving the learner experience by enabling the user to personalise their learnings by saving phrases from the skits for immediate review among other improvements. This resulted in 400%+ increase in monthly revenue bringing the application into a postion where it was at least not losing money every month on maintainance fees and content development costs. It was our first time grappling with the requirements of the Apple app store for an app launch. This process was protracted as we got various technical and paperwork hurdles out of the way for an in-app purchase application and ended up delaying release by a few months.

Result

Although not an instant success as many had hoped, riding on the back of the extremeley popular podcast series, the application development was a good learning process for the organisation and evolved into a position of stability that could be built upon. The foundations of a good learning produce and new stream of revenue had been laid.