Many of us want to create the next unicorn, it is not a question.

The question is how to do that.

We do not have a straight answer for you, however, we suggest starting from the very beginning and try to answer the question: “How do I choose a niche?”

What we will share with you below will help you identify trending niches, expand your product expertise and notice the opportunities for our future mobile products.

Tools to research the mobile market

There is a range of solutions that provide the possibility to analyze the market, find competitors, analyze their metrics such as revenue/downloads/daily active users, etc.

For instance, for Mobile market analysis you might use Sensor Tower, Data.ai, or AppMagic.

However, these products provide so much data, that even having access to it, it might not be an easy thing to digest. Let’s have a look at an example.

Parameters to check

• Revenue
• Downloads
• Top Countries
• Release Date

By checking how many downloads your competitors are getting and how much revenue they are making, you can analyze the market size, interest of the users, and their readiness to pay. It is worth checking trends in this data for the last several months. If new competitors appear, and these indicators are increasing for all participants of the niche, you might say that this niche is still active and growing.

If you see that there are several big competitors and a range of small competitors, and their indicators are decreasing, the trend is probably falling and this niche was identified earlier. Most probably you are late with your idea.

The ideal scenario is when there is 1 big competitor released to the market not long ago and there are several small competitors. Revenue and downloads of all of them are increasing which means that market is increasing. Pay attention — your first competitor partially validated your idea for you and you can learn from their data.

By checking the number of competitors and their release dates you can see how long they exist on the market and whether the trend is new or already getting old.

By checking the top countries in which your competitor operates, you can consider moving to another market or share the market with them.

Example of niche research

This example will be done based on Sensor Tower data, however, it is not an advertising article. Please select the tool which works for you in terms of functionality and pricing, we just want to share our logic with you.

To begin with pay attention to the following:

• Only revenue from in-app purchases and subscriptions is shown in Sensor Tower. (Revenue from advertising is not shown in this tool. So if you are considering ad monetization, you will need additional data.)
• The free version allows you to see the number of downloads/revenue of the last month; price; Top Countries / Regions; app descriptions; rating; competitors list. As well it shows the top charts of the App Store and Google Play.
• Paid version opens additional information in the “App Overview” section. For deeper analysis, we are interested in Store Intelligence Module.

Step 1 - Identify the idea

We have an idea for a mobile app that will help teach young kids how to write.

Step 2 - Find your competitors

In order to start our analysis, we need to look for existing solutions. If there are competitors, it means that the market exists. It doesn’t mean that you need to forget about your idea, it means that you can analyze their solution and learn from them.

Step 3 - Check the app in Sensor Tower's “App overview”

We found the list of existing applications. Let’s check them in SensorTower. The first one is “Learning Kids Games 4 Toddlers.”

If you use free version, revenue and downloads for the last month can be found in the search results dropdown. Pay attention that revenue will be shown separately for Android and iOS applications.

If I click on the app I will be able to see the detailed data.

We might be interested in the price. Note that an app is considered free even if it has in-app purchases.

We can analyze the Top Countries/Region section and it might influence our targeting.

As discussed above, Release details information can tell you how long the product operates on the market, whether it is still updated, and what languages are supported.

In the paid version, in this step we will gather the same information, however, it is organized in a more convenient way.

Step 4 - Get your competitors’ apps data

In order to make our list of competitors comprehensive, we can check the “Related Apps” section. App Overview → Organic User Acquisition → Related Apps

This section is available in both Free and Paid versions.

Repeat step 3 for all competitors.

As a result, you will have table like this. Note: the table with competitors is not full and is shown as an example.

Step 5 - Analyse your competitors

On the free version, proceed with the analysis of the data gathered. We can calculate the total revenue of the app and estimate the approximate size of the market. The number of the closest competitors might have an impact on your decision. The pricing model of the competitors can help you to come up with economics for your app.

If you use the paid version, we suggest using the following flow:

Store Intelligence -> App analysis -> Add app to compare -> date (select Month) - check 3 months.

This approach gives total revenue for a niche in 2 places and shows the percentage covered by a particular app. As well you will be able to see the details for Android/iOS devices. If you are interested in 1 market you can do so by using advanced filters.

Alternative niche research

What if you struggle with Step 1 and do not have the initial idea? You can take inspiration from analyzing the market.

We suggest checking the following flow:

Store Intelligence -> Top Apps

You will be able at once to see the growth in downloads and revenue in comparison with the previous period.

Additionally, we suggest selecting the following parameters in the filters:

• Country
• Date: Last 30 days revenue or you can select any other range applicable for your analysis.
• Release date
• Category
• Device
• Appstore/Google Play/ Unified

You can change the view and see the Top Apps by Absolute Revenue.

We suggest setting the “release date” parameter to the last year/half year/quarter and checking what were the top apps in the selected country or what were the top apps in the specified category.

⇒ While performing such research, we found out that no apps were launched in the kids age range in 2022 in the US.

Conclusion

The most difficult part is not to build the product but to find the correct niche, validate the idea, and figure out how to monetize it. We recommend using existing tools for market analysis and finding a niche based on a detailed analysis of the competitors and their metrics such as downloads/revenue/daily active users.

As you can see in the example you can start the analysis using free tools and expand them to paid functionalities as needed.

Don’t forget that market and competitor metrics are only part of the equation, you will multiply your chances of success if you have expertise in the target niche and a passion for solving the problems this target audience faces.

Good luck in finding your product niche!

Written by Irina Demidova with help from Igor Krasnik, Anastasiya Borisova and John McTavish 🙏