ONA20 presentation: How Nikkei improves user retention through consultation

Nikkei.com, launched in March 2010 and currently boasts 750,000 paid subscriptions, despite the relatively high subscription price of US$40 per month. Join this session to learn more about how a three-question survey helped provide a small but significant improvement in retention.

Transcript

1. How Nikkei improves user retention through consultation with new subscribers
2. 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
3. 3 Nikkei Online Edition (Nikkei.com) Paid Subscribers: 750K ($40 USD/month) Launched March 2010
4. 4 Do you provide $1/week offers to draw new subscribers? Do you spend a lot of money on the social media platform? No!
5. 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)
6. 6 Acquisition Cost > Retention Cost Retention is highly cost-effective
7. 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!
8. 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!
9. 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
10. 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
11. 11 New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(3) Which viewer format do you prefer? • Article list smartphone view • ePaper app Replica viewer • Both
12. Nikkei ePaper newspaper replica viewer app 12
13. 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
14. 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
15. 15 New subscriber response rate to survey: 85%! (Test period: 2019 Jun ~ Jul) Results(1) 85% Answered
16. 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)
17. 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
18. 18 Next step Rolling out the consultation surveys to current subscribers
19. 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
20. 20 YOSUKE SUZUKI GM Digital Business Development, Nikkei America yosuke.suzuki@nex.nikkei.com NIKKEI PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY BLOG on Medium https://medium.com/nikkei-product-technology