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
   

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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
   

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

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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!
   

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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)
   

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

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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!
   

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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!
   

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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
   

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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
    

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11. 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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12. Nikkei ePaper newspaper replica viewer app
    12
    

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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
    

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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
    

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

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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)
    

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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
    

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18. 18
    Next step
    Rolling out the consultation surveys to
    current subscribers
    

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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
    

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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
    

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