3 months ago we launched EPG Mobile (Beta), a browser detecting mobile device 'friendly' version of the disease and medicines knowledge base EPG OnlineEPG Mobile has 20,000+ regular users in 3 months, 132% growth between July and August alone, all stats for a non-promoted, non-publicised test version of a service developed for a niche market that most web masters would give their right arm for. Yes of course we did link to it here and there (after all we wanted it tested), but basically we just 'turned it on' one day in May.
It's early days into what will be a 9 to 12 month beta test period with new elements and improvements already planned for later in 2009 and early 2010, but we are already learning new things about mobile device user behaviour.
First they are more loyal, they come back more frequently and more often. Okay they don't stay quite as long as a typical web user at EPG Online or view as many pages, so no surprises there then, but the loyalty perhaps is. Why so?
The explosion of iPhone usage and development of appropriate medical related Apps suggests there is plenty out there for the doctor on call or the med student at study, much of it - but not all - is good and some of it even free! Let's face it, even we are developing an App of our own (free to use of course). Maybe the devices themselves hold the answer. Despite the unquestioned success of the iPhone and despite the picture used above, in our first 3 months Windows based OS users out number iPhone users 7 to 1.
Early results from the Beta test also show us something else, not just about how this group of digital savvy, gizmo loving, head downer docs behave, but where they come from. Our results indicate the age of the mobile web service may have become reality in healthcare - but with a geographical region leading the growth curve we did not expect (outside the USA where it happened a while ago).
The usual suspects are at the top of the list, Germany in first place - interestingly for a currently English language only service - then the United States, UK, Sweden (they love their mobiles), Spain and so on. But the truly explosive growth and most loyal group of users are in the emerging markets China, India, South East Asia.
We know these are important markets, everybody does. But having spent the last 2 years working on localised versions of the web service for these very same users, in particular tackling some significant technical challenges with character set behaviour in the DB back end, maybe it's possible that while we were developing the (web) service, the emerging market(s) moved on.
Not quite back to the drawing board for us, as the web remains the number 1 channel for reaching the new markets and our technology affords delivery via multi-channels, but perhaps a sign of what's to come.
