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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Multimedia experience based on geographic position

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The most important poems event and competition in Finland with long tradition in the country provides a unique user experience to citizens with Runonmaa Map powered by Fluktus CityGuide©.
Users from all cities and regions can visualize in a map the location where all the different poems have been created (schools, organizations, author’s birthplace,…) and enjoy them by reading, playing videos and audios, and links to additional sources of information. The content for poems is available in Finnish and Swedish languages.
Runonmaa Map is accessible from any device, showing it’s full power when accessing with smartphones and tablets since user can enjoy full location service experience based on positioning.
Access from here and enjoy Runonmaa Map!
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More information on Fluktus company here

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Games Virality

Some statistics from Applifier on main factors for game virality efforts:

Monday, September 16, 2013

DAU / MAU

User retention rate is a metric that indicates the proportion of users that have stayed with your service for a while. The retention rate can be calculated annually, monthly, weekly or daily. The periodicity depends on the purchase/usage cycle and the frequency at which the purchases/usage are generally made.

In Facebook there is good 30 day retention data called the DAU/MAU Ratio – which can also be called Stickiness. This is the ratio of Daily Active Users to Monthly Active Users. For example, a DAU/MAU ratio of 50% would mean that the average user of your app is using it 15 out of 30 days that month.
It turns out this simple metric is enough to predict, with a high level of probability, the success of a product. For example, look at the correlation between the following set of Facebook games.
Here we have games that fit a broad set of criteria, in terms of brand association, demographic appeal, play style, and time since launch. Second column and the fourth column are almost perfectly in order Despite this broad cross-section of games it appears there is a very direct correlation between stickiness and success. Let’s take a deeper view of the data.
This is called the coefficient of determination (R2) and predicts whether two correlated data sets accurately predict future success. If everything lined up perfectly on the linear regression line above you would have an R2 value of 1, and then we could say there is a perfect correlation between Stickiness (x axis) and the Size of the app (y axis). Using these social games we have a rather astonishing “fit” of 0.77.

 

 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Emerging Strategies to User Acquisition

Companies having important business in the online world are increasing their efforts to optimize and maximize the user acquisition from internet and mobile marketing channels.

The gaming industry is one of the most active in this field.

In this case I am sharing a video from a conference on “Emerging Strategies to User Acquisition” where people from different game companies participated.


Wednesday, June 19, 2013

COPPA

Despite there is still quite a lot of things to clarify regarding COPPA, and that each case and each company has to investigate how this regulation is affecting to them, let's give a summary here of what COPPA is, what is the scope and how is different from previous regulations.

COPPA

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a law created to protect the privacy of children under 13. The Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998 and took effect in April 2000. COPPA is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). New COPPA regulations are taking effect from 1st of July 2013.

New COPPA regulations

The most significant provisions in the COPPA Rule required operators of websites or online services to give notice to parents and get their verifiable consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information from children when either
(a) the website or online service is directed to children who are younger than 13 years of age
(b) when operators of websites or online services have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children younger than 13.

The COPPA Rule also prohibits conditioning children’s participation in online activities on the collection of more personal information than is reasonably necessary for them to participate, and contains a “safe harbor” provision that allows industry groups or others to seek FTC approval of self-regulatory guidelines.

To whom is affecting

COPPA Rule applies if the operator collects information from anyone who has indicated their age to be 12 or younger. Of course, such sites can also avoid COPPA (if they are not otherwise deemed to be directed to kids) by bouncing anyone who has indicated themselves to be 12 or younger.

But COPPA Rule has expanded the definition of operators under the Rule to include "sites or services that target children only as a secondary audience or to a lesser degree". There remains some potential for confusion because of the new definition, which discusses sites "directed to children" but that do not target children as their "primary audience."

Personal information

Before the amendments to the COPPA Rule, "Personal Information" included:
  • a first and last name 
  • a physical address 
  • an email or instant messaging address 
  • a telephone number 
  • a Social Security number 
  • a persistent identifier or a combination of information that allows contacting or information concerning a child or his parents that the operator collects online and combines with a persistent identifier 

Now, "Personal Information" also includes:
  • photos
  • videos
  • audio files that contain the child’s image or voice 
  • geolocation information 
  • persistent identifiers: used to "recognize a user over time and across different websites or online services"
The new definition of “persistent identifiers” includes anything that can be used to track individual users “over time and across different websites.” IP addresses, geolocation data, device identifiers, and cookies could all fall within this definition.

Identifiers are considered personal information only to the extent they are not used to support the internal operations of the site or service. The FTC’s intention is that sites using tracking tools to follow children across websites for behavioral advertising purposes will fall under the COPPA Rule because of that activity; sites using the same tools to track users, including children, for the purpose of effectively providing their own services — including offering advertising content based on the user’s activity within the site — will not.

Child-directed sites or services that use third party “plug-ins” or ad networks to collect personal information are now considered operators and strictly liable for COPPA violations.

Contextual vs Behavioral advertising

The practical difference between whether tracking activity will or will not fall under COPPA is the difference between what has become known as "contextual advertising" as compared with "behavioral advertising." Contextual advertising, deemed not the collection of personal information under COPPA, provides ad content to users based on the site visited (e.g., if you are on a car enthusiast site, you will be presented with advertisements for sports cars). Behavioral advertising, deemed to qualify as the collection of personal information under COPPA, provides ad content based on the tracking of a user’s Internet browsing activity (e.g., if you run a search for mortgage interest rates, you might be presented with ads for mortgage or home refinancing offers when you visit unrelated sites the next day). The FTC makes clear in its comments in the Federal Register that it is specifically addressing behavioral advertising with the amendments

“Plug ins” and ad networks are now subject to COPPA liability if they have actual knowledge they are collecting information from a child-directed site without parental consent Previously, plug-ins and ad networks were not clearly subject to direct liability.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Fluktus CityGuide - Location Based Service

Fluktus CityGuide is the first location based CMS enabling business to reach real time their customers, anytime, anywhere. Users can visualize in any device your content (audio, video, images, text, etc..) based on their geographical position.
No need to install or update any application. No need to have an Android or iOS dedicated app. Our mobile application is web based so users can access to the service with just one click. 
Access with your mobile device to the Demo: 
 

Fluktus CityGuide Mobile Client

Our web based mobile client allows users the access to the Fluktus CityGuide service from any device independently from their operating system. New service features are deployed and users can enjoy them without having to update the application.
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Fluktus CityGuide Mobile Client allows the visualization of:
  • User geographical position
  • Your defined points of interest in the map
  • Any multimedia content you assigned to the points of interest
  • Routes (by walking, by car,…) and distance to the points of interest
  • Weather information
  • Public transportation
  • Traffic information
  • Bike routes
And any type of information you want to show to your users. We can produce any type of customization for you to use Fluktus CityGuide as your own mobile location based service.
Fluktus CityGuide Mobile Client also works in “offline” mode so users can visualize your defined points of interest and multimedia content even if they are not connected to Internet in order to avoid in some cases roaming costs when being abroad.

Fluktus CityGuide Editor

Fluktus CityGuide Editor allows you to edit any number of points of information in a map click just one click.
Manage all your media content and assign it to your define points of interest. Content types include:
  • Images
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Text
  • Web pages
  • Links to other websites
  • Documents
And any other source of information  you want to show to end users based on their geographical position.
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We integrate Fluktus CityGuide Editor with your systems in order to show in a map any information or event automatically, with no human intervention.

Fluktus CityGuide Analytics

Fluktus CityGuide Analytics allows you to have accurate real-time information on the performance of Fluktus CityGuide Service.
Our dashboards shows you the most important metrics about how the services has been utilized by users. We define the metrics with you and we show you in a customized dashboard. Examples of analytics metrics we provide are number of visitors, most popular content, most popular places visited, language of the end-user, type of device,  etc.
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Thursday, April 4, 2013

IDFA - Identifier for Advertising for iOS

This information is based on the post of Michael Oiknine, CEO of Apsalar.


Every iPhone comes with an identification number — like a serial number – that’s used for connecting data to a specific handset. Until recently, the UDID allowed developers and marketers to track activity on the phone, such as app purchases, game scores for Game Center, delivering push messages, or any other activity unique to that iPhone.

Recently, Apple announced that it would be replacing its UDID with a new, improved Identifier for Advertising (also called IDFA or sometimes IFA) for IOS6. Its arrival brings about some major changes to advertising on iOS:

  •  Advertising IDs are no longer tied to a user’s device and are thus no longer permanent. This means users are now able to reset their identifier whenever they wish.

  •  Users are now also able to opt out of behaviorally targeted advertising completely via their phone settings.

This will have benefits for users, developers, and the industry at large. However, although IDFA is out and available, there are still a few limitations that need to be examined and addressed before the rollout achieves 100% adoption and can be considered a success.

Here’s where Apple needs to focus next to ensure the success of the new Identifier for Advertising:

1. Allow for more robust user controls beyond just opting in or out


Currently, users can choose only whether to opt in or out of behavioral advertising. While this is a great first step toward improved user privacy controls, Apple should give users even more granular control.

One way Apple can do this is to create a more user-friendly version of Google’s “Ad Preference Center,” which allows users to not only opt in and out of behavioral advertising on the web, but also view – and choose – which interest-based ad categories they will receive. For instance, using Google’s Ad Preference Center, a user could perhaps see that, based on his or her browsing history, he or she is currently categorized as a sports enthusiast, car aficionado, and a potential purchaser of real estate. If the user decides this is inaccurate or doesn’t want to receive ads in these categories any longer, he/she can choose which of the categories to opt out of – and even choose to opt into another category altogether if the user wishes to receive ads related to, say, travel. I would love to see Apple allow this degree of control for users on mobile in the future, as this benefits both advertisers and users alike.

2. Ensure there are no outstanding bugs

With the new iOS rollout, a bug was uncovered where any user who updated over Wi-Fi showed IDs as all zeros, instead of the unique number sequences being sent by those who plugged their devices in and updated via iTunes or Xcode. Apple will need to ensure that there are no outstanding bugs in the IDFA system to ensure smooth adoption and transition from UDID to IDFA.

3. Encourage wider adoption

Since the new Identifier for Advertising is only available on iOS6, users on previous OS versions won’t be tracked with IDFA and will still be on the old UDID system.  Our own first-party data shows that users have adopted iOS6 122% more quickly than iOS 5 after 2 days, with around 20% adoption by Day 2. To get the remaining 80% or so of users on board, Apple will need to fix common user complaints on iOS6 to increase adoption – for instance, a significant number of users have chosen not to update their OS due to issues with the new maps interface and other complaints.
Additionally, Apple may need to provide further incentives to developers to make the update or simplify the app submission process, since re-submitting an app to the app store can often be a tedious and time-consuming review process.

Although the launch of Apple’s new Identifier for Advertising is a big step forward, there’s still a long way to go before user behavior identifiers and user privacy controls on mobile catch up to their web counterparts. It will be interesting to see what Apple does next, and we hope to see continued support, improvements, and wider adoption of the new IDFA.

Monday, March 25, 2013

UDIDs banned by Apple


Apple has finally placed a deadline on its rejection of apps that use UDIDs (Universal Device Identifier). 

Starting May 1, the App Store will no longer accept new apps or app updates that access UDIDs. 

Companies will have to update their apps and servers to associate users with the Vendor or Advertising Identifiers introduced in iOS 6. 

UDID

A UDID, or “Unique Device Identifier,” is simply a specific serial number for your iDevice. 
The UDID has been mainly used as a way to document the existence of your device and to track it. It is a 40-number, alphanumeric string that is not replicated on any other iDevice.

The UDID is also important because it is the way that most ad companies profile cellphone users for marketing purposes. 

There have been a lots of issues raised about iOS apps sending UDID numbers to ad companies without the user’s permission. Finally Apple, after several months of progressively transitioning developers away from the use of UDIDs has put an end to their use.

The below video will show give a good picture on why Apple has finally adopted the decision of rejecting apps that use UDIDs.




Advertising Identifiers


iOS 6 introduced the Advertising Identifier, a non-permanent, non-personal device identifier, 
that advertising networks will use to give you more control over advertisers’ ability to use tracking methods.

The Limit Ad Tracking option in iOS 6 Settings

If you choose to limit ad tracking, advertising networks using the Advertising Identifier may no longer gather information to serve you targeted ads. 

In the future all advertising networks will be required to use the Advertising Identifier. 
However, until advertising networks transition to using the Advertising Identifier you may still 
receive targeted ads from other networks. 





Sunday, March 3, 2013

Google Game - Ingress

The combination of game and location based service brings new possibilities for business and end-users. Google is approaching this opportunity with the development of Ingress game.

Ingress

Ingress is an augmented reality  massively multiplayer online video game created by NianticLabs@Google, released only for Android devices.

Players of the game belong to one of two factions, “Enlightened” (represented in green) and “Resistance” (blue). The game-play allows players to enclose regions of territory on the surface of the earth with virtual links between virtual portals, which are visible in the game software. The top-level goal of the game is for one’s faction to control large numbers of “Mind Units”, the estimated number of humans within the regions of territory controlled by the faction.

Ingress was officially launched on November 16, 2012, supported by an online viral marketing campaign. It was noticed as early as November 8 and other earlier efforts have been noted at events such as Comic Con in San Diego on July 12, 2012. Google employees have been testing the game for at least 6 months. It is currently in closed beta and available for download on Google's Play Store.



If you want to play it, you need to get an invitation. You can get the inviation as well as more information in Ingress website: www.ingress.com