Technological progress and digital age brought enterprises to every geographic and socioeconomic sector. In other words, transaction costs of starting a business have lowered significantly for tech sectors, in particular for apps. This setting gives more opportunities for people to discover themselves as entrepreneurs. In the last years the App market grown vastly with the large diffusion of Smartphones and Devices connected to internet all around the globe. The App market of Western countries is getting more and more saturated overtime and few but big companies are gaining the control of the market. Many startups and small companies are looking for new business opportunity expanding their business in the new Asian and South American emerging markets. China is the first fast-growing economy worldwide. The big population of the Chinese market hold an enormous potential for western companies that want to expand their horizons. Many companies planned to expand their business in China since it was an early Emerging Economy, also startups and small companies are trying to expand their App Business in China. However, the resources of these companies are limited, they cannot afford big investments as the big enterprises do. Also, Chinese App ecosystem looks completely different to all the other markets. Because of these difficulties many startups and entrepreneurial projects failed to export the product to the Chinese market. Smart Launcher is a 3-year-old Italian Startup. It is an innovative Launcher for Android devices that substitute the default home screen of the smartphone with a lighter and simpler User Interface. In 3 years, the company reached the 35,000,000 downloads worldwide, gaining the attention of Google that rewarded the company with the badge of “Top Developers” and recorded a video-documentary of the company for “Android Developers Story” in 2015. This year, the company is ready to expand its business in China. Being directly involved as Designer in Smart Launcher I personally faced the difficulties of exporting an App in China. The Research explores how Design could help Smart Launcher to export its product in China. The study analyzes the latest trends and differences of Apps between China and Western Countries. It also shows how tech companies are pushing startups to use Localization to gain more results. The analysis of the case studies also demonstrates that not only localization but more aspects are involved in order to adapt the product to the local users creating a valuable business. The study explains how following a design process the company was able to adapt its product to the Chinese market overcoming startups low-resources. The aim of the design process is to make the company able to increase knowledge of the local culture supporting the research and the definition of new local customers; to design features that respond to the local customer’s needs; and to promote and deliver the product to the App Stores. It’s the first time that Smart Launcher invests so much effort to enter in a market so different from the West, developing concepts of innovative features specifically suited for the new Customer, increasing the chances of of success in the Chinese market.
Il recente progresso tecnologico dell'era digitale in cui viviamo, ha permesso alle aziende di svilupparsi in ogni contesto geografico e socioeconomico. In altre parole, i costi necessari a costituire un azienda tecnologica sono ridotti drasticamente nel settore digitale, questo vale sopratutto nel mercato delle App. Questo contesto ha permesso l'evolversi della figura dell'imprenditore, sempre più persone infatti mettono in gioco le proprie idee. Nell'ultimo periodo il mercato delle App è cresciuto esponenzialmente con la diffusione di Smartphones e Devices connessi alla rete globale di Internet. Negli stati Occidentali il mercato si sta sempre più saturando nel tempo e poche ma grandi compagnie stanno prendendo il controllo dell'intero mercato digitale. Molte startups e piccole compagnie stanno già guardando verso nuove opportunità di crescita sviluppando ed espandendo il loro business nei mercato emergenti Asiatici e Sud Americani. La Cina è la principale Fast-Growing Economy nel mondo. L'alto numero della popolazione rappresenta un enorme potenziale per le compagnie pronte ad espandere i propri orizzonti. In questi anni molte aziende hanno già cercato di espandersi in Cina sin dai primi segni del suo sviluppo economico. Nell'ultimo periodo anche startups e piccole compagnie stanno tentando di espandersi in questi territori, purtroppo le risorse di queste piccole compagnie sono limitate, non potendo permettersi grandi investimenti come le grandi compagnie sono solite fare. Inoltre, l'ecosistema del mercato delle App in Cina è molto diverso da quello del resto del mondo. A causa di queste difficoltà molte idee imprenditoriali e piani di espansione hanno fallito durante il salto nel mercato Cinese. Smart Launcher è una startup italiana con un business attivo di tre anni. L'azienda disegna e sviluppa un innovativo Launcher per Android; in altre parole, distribuisce un app che sostituisce estetica e funzionalità della schermata principale dei dispositivi Android, restituendo un esperienza di uso più semplice ed intuitiva. In tre anni l'azienda ha raggiunto i 25.000.000 di downloads in tutto il mondo, attirando l'attenzione di colossi come Google, la stessa che ha premiato l'azienda con il titolo di "Top Developer" e che ha voluto raccontare l'idea imprenditoriale girando un video-documentario sulla compagnia nella loro città natale per il programma "Android Developers Story" nel 2015. La Ricerca indaga su come il Design possa aiutare compagnie come Smart Launcher ad adattare il prodotto (App) all'ecosistema Cinese espandendosi quindi nel nuovo mercato. Lo studio analizza infatti gli ultimi trends e le differenze che esistono tra App Cinesi ed Occidentali. Particolare attenzione viene posta sulle opportunità di business che gli stati emergenti e la Cina offrono alle aziende innovative. Viene indagato successivamente come le grandi compagnie hanno attuato sistemi di localizzazione e i suggerimenti che queste ultime condividono con le piccole compagnie. La tesi dimostra come Smart Launcher è stata capace di adattare il proprio prodotto al mercato Cinese attuando e seguendo un Design Process, superando così le difficoltà di budget e risorse limitate con cui le startups devono far i conti quotidianamente. Gli obbiettivi del Design process è di rendere la compagnia capace di aumentare la consapevolezza della nuova cultura locale, elemento fondamentale per la ricerca e definizione del nuovo Local User; di progettare successivamente funzionalità che rispondono ai bisogni del nuovo utente; di promuovere e distribuire infine l'app negli App store locali. E' la prima volta che Smart Launcher investe un quantità simile di energie per entrare in un mercato diverso da quello Occidentale, diventando capace di sviluppare soluzioni innovative progettate specificatamente per il nuovo Customer, aumentando drasticamente le sue possibilità di successo nel mercato cinese.
Going global by being local. Export an app in China
PIEMONTESE, GIOVANNI
2015/2016
Abstract
Technological progress and digital age brought enterprises to every geographic and socioeconomic sector. In other words, transaction costs of starting a business have lowered significantly for tech sectors, in particular for apps. This setting gives more opportunities for people to discover themselves as entrepreneurs. In the last years the App market grown vastly with the large diffusion of Smartphones and Devices connected to internet all around the globe. The App market of Western countries is getting more and more saturated overtime and few but big companies are gaining the control of the market. Many startups and small companies are looking for new business opportunity expanding their business in the new Asian and South American emerging markets. China is the first fast-growing economy worldwide. The big population of the Chinese market hold an enormous potential for western companies that want to expand their horizons. Many companies planned to expand their business in China since it was an early Emerging Economy, also startups and small companies are trying to expand their App Business in China. However, the resources of these companies are limited, they cannot afford big investments as the big enterprises do. Also, Chinese App ecosystem looks completely different to all the other markets. Because of these difficulties many startups and entrepreneurial projects failed to export the product to the Chinese market. Smart Launcher is a 3-year-old Italian Startup. It is an innovative Launcher for Android devices that substitute the default home screen of the smartphone with a lighter and simpler User Interface. In 3 years, the company reached the 35,000,000 downloads worldwide, gaining the attention of Google that rewarded the company with the badge of “Top Developers” and recorded a video-documentary of the company for “Android Developers Story” in 2015. This year, the company is ready to expand its business in China. Being directly involved as Designer in Smart Launcher I personally faced the difficulties of exporting an App in China. The Research explores how Design could help Smart Launcher to export its product in China. The study analyzes the latest trends and differences of Apps between China and Western Countries. It also shows how tech companies are pushing startups to use Localization to gain more results. The analysis of the case studies also demonstrates that not only localization but more aspects are involved in order to adapt the product to the local users creating a valuable business. The study explains how following a design process the company was able to adapt its product to the Chinese market overcoming startups low-resources. The aim of the design process is to make the company able to increase knowledge of the local culture supporting the research and the definition of new local customers; to design features that respond to the local customer’s needs; and to promote and deliver the product to the App Stores. It’s the first time that Smart Launcher invests so much effort to enter in a market so different from the West, developing concepts of innovative features specifically suited for the new Customer, increasing the chances of of success in the Chinese market.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2016_07_Giovanni_Piemontese.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/122911