Karol Severin

Shine Adds Econet To Its Network-Level Adblocking Client Roster

Blog post by Karol Severin

25 Aug 2016

On Thursday last week, Shine, the company behind offering adblocking solutions to mobile operators, announced a new mobile operator partnership. Econet is a telecommunications group mainly active in Africa,…

Candy Crush, Clash Of Clans And The Future Of Mobile Games
From Silos To Ecosystems

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Report by Karol Severin

22 Aug 2016

Though mobile games differ largely by genre, demographics and business models, most share the status of social connector and cultural identifier. Much like music companies, mobile gaming companies often…

Quick Take: Why Mr. Robot App Is an Exciting Case To Watch

Blog post by Karol Severin

19 Aug 2016

Mr. Robot is a cyber-security psychological thriller of NBCUniversal, popular with the tech-crowd. The company has partnered up with Telltale Games and Night School Studio and created a mobile game as…

How Facebook Is Trying To Defend Against Adblocking

Blog post by Karol Severin

10 Aug 2016

Yesterday, Facebook announced changes to its ad control tools for users along with the intention to start serving ads to adblocking users on desktop. Bypassing adblockers is a bid to mitigate the resulting…

Why Disney Is Going Into Mobile Messaging

Blog post by Karol Severin

5 Aug 2016

Disney announced a launch of Disney Mix, a messaging platform aimed at kids, tweens and their families. This is an important case to watch because it shows that: In a seemingly crowded space, there is…

It’s Time to Re-Evaluate How We Size The App Economy

Blog post by Karol Severin

29 Jul 2016

Games have been dominating the app economy revenue since its inception. App Annie reports that games accounted for 85% of app market revenues in 2015. Our recent Appstore Economics Report highlights that…

Mobile Messaging Platforms
The Mobile Experience Revolution

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Report by Karol Severin

27 Jul 2016

The world of mobile consumer experiences is undergoing a seismic shift with messaging apps a driving force. With 6.4 billion cumulative monthly active messaging app users (compared to the 1.5 billion…

Cutting Through The Hype Around Pokemon Go’s Success

Blog post by Karol Severin

26 Jul 2016

The success of Pokemon Go has been impressive so far. However, its achievements are currently over-hyped. Media outlets have been reporting the game’s every new ‘record breaking’ accolade. While…

Quick Take: Why Pokemon Go Will Bring AR To The Mainstream

Blog post by Karol Severin

12 Jul 2016

AR has so far struggled to produce a compelling proposition for the mainstream to engage with (except possibly Snapchat). Pokemon Go has executed this masterfully because it: Is free and does not require…

Why Organ Donors And The Pursuit Of Health On Mobile Matters To Apple

Blog post by Karol Severin

7 Jul 2016

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how the health sector will be very important for Apple to keep it’s users loyal and stand out from other handset manufacturers amidst the maturing smartphone market…

Why The New Facebook News Feed Change Favours Users Over Publishers

Blog post by Karol Severin

1 Jul 2016

The media (and users) have been on Facebook’s case regarding the way it ranks posts in users’ News Feeds. Claims were made about non-transparency, promoting content that makes more money for Facebook,…

App Store Economics
Games Still Dominate But Charts Now Only Tell Part Of The Story

Report by Karol Severin

30 Jun 2016

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Brexit Implications
How the UK's EU Exit Could Impact Media and Tech

Report by Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

28 Jun 2016

The 20,000 Foot View The UK’s vote to leave the European Union sent shockwaves that will continue to reverberate across the globe for years to come. While the potential geopolitical permutations may…

What Tencent’s Supercell Takeover Tells Us About The Future Of The App Economy

Blog post by Karol Severin

22 Jun 2016

Supercell, the company behind Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, agreed to sell 86% of their equity to the Chinese giant Tencent for $8.6 billion. The acquisition catapults the Tencent into being the number…

Watch Out Facebook Messenger: Apple’s iMessage Just Got Serious

Blog post by Karol Severin

17 Jun 2016

Apple’s WWDC this week confirmed that company is getting serious about messaging. At its developer conference it announced a major overhaul for iMessage with the upcoming release of iOS10. While iMessage…

What's Really Behind Apple's App Store Revamp

Blog post by Karol Severin

10 Jun 2016

This week Apple announced that major changes are coming to the App Store. Firstly, it will allow all app categories to deploy subscription offerings as a part of their revenue models. Furthermore, if publishers…

Facebook’s DeepText Sees And Learns From Everything You Write

Blog post by Karol Severin

3 Jun 2016

Facebook introduced its DeepText AI this week . It is a deep learning-based text understanding engine, which allows Facebook to sieve through and understand several thousand posts per second across 20…

Profiling The Mobile Messaging App User
Where Mainstream Mobile Users Are Heading

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Report by Karol Severin

30 May 2016

The 20,000 Foot View With mobile messaging platforms playing an ever more crucial role in the distribution of mobile experiences, it is imperative that marketers, brands, and strategy teams develop deep…

Why Twitter Really Made The Changes Around Its Character Limit

Blog post by Karol Severin

27 May 2016

Twitter announced a number of changes this week, which are geared to extend the expression capabilities of the strict 140-character limit. The platform will no longer count media attachments nor ‘@names’…

YouTube’s New Instant Messaging Feature

Blog post by Karol Severin

16 May 2016

Last week Wired reported that YouTube introduced a messaging feature to a small group of users, allowing them to send instant messages and share videos within YouTube’s mobile app. Though YouTube is…