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How Nikkei improves user retention through consultation with new subscribers

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2 NIKKEI Group Overview 144 year history 1400 Journalists NIKKEI+FT 2M Nikkei newspaper 750K Nikkei.com paid subs($40/month) 10M Nikkei ID membership Financial Database/Index Business Live Events Educational Services Consolidated Revenue $3.3B TV/Radio networks Trade Journals

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3 Nikkei Online Edition (Nikkei.com) Paid Subscribers: 750K ($40 USD/month) Launched March 2010

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4 Do you provide $1/week offers to draw new subscribers? Do you spend a lot of money on the social media platform? No!

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5 $40/month Despite its high price, monthly churn rate is low: 1.5% … (excluding IAP subscribers) Typical monthly churn rate of North American publishers: 3% ~ 4% (FTI Consulting)

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6 Acquisition Cost > Retention Cost Retention is highly cost-effective

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7 Nikkei.com offers a wide range of apps and features…but many subscribers don’t use them or even know about them ● iOS/Android app (86%) ● ePaper app (44%) ● Keyword follow ● Newsletter ● Search ● Interactive content ● Company directories 困った!

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8 We want to recommend the best matching features for our new users. But we don’t know much about them -> Typical cold start problem We want better engagement with our users but we don’t know enough about their interests: So ask them!

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9 New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(1) Why do you access Nikkei news? [Multiple choice OK] ● Daily news review ● For work or business ● Managing investments or assets ● Self-improvement ● Other reason

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10 New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(2) In the past, how often have you read the Nikkei daily newspaper? ● Almost every day ● 3-4 times per week ● 1-2 times per week ● Never read the Nikkei newspaper

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11 New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(3) Which viewer format do you prefer? ● Article list smartphone view ● ePaper app Replica viewer ● Both

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Nikkei ePaper newspaper replica viewer app 12

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13 New subscriber consultation -> Provide app and feature recommendations ● 6 app/feature recommendation profiles based on new subscriber survey responses ○ Smartphone app Installation Guide ○ Habit-making guidance for Morning/Evening editions ○ Content recommendations ○ Personalization features

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14 Question 1 Question2 Question3 02 01 Question3 04 03 Question3 06 05 YES No YES No The user reads Nikkei for “Business” or “Investment” The user previously read Nikkei paper more than 3 days/week Prefers List style app or both List & ePaper YES No

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15 New subscriber response rate to survey: 85%! (Test period: 2019 Jun ~ Jul) Results(1) 85% Answered

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16 The way you ask questions is important Results(2) Best result “Please answer the following 3 questions.” “Thank you for registering.” “Please answer the following 3 questions.” (with Nikkei masthead image)

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17 Results(3) ● 4 point improvement in retention rate (93 day retention period) ● 8 point improvement in ePaper app usage rate (44% -> 52%) ● $546K gross profit increase

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18 Next step Rolling out the consultation surveys to current subscribers

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19 IN CONCLUSION ● New subscriber consultation surveys at on-boarding are a very simple and effective way to improve user engagement ● Most subscription media can do it ● Subtle changes in how you phrase questions can dramatically improve response rates ● Test a lot ● Questions? -> Contact me

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20 YOSUKE SUZUKI GM Digital Business Development, Nikkei America [email protected] NIKKEI PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY BLOG on Medium https://medium.com/nikkei-product-technology