Measuring the Impact of Crowdsourcing Features on Mobile App User Engagement and Retention: A Randomized Field Experiment

75 Pages Posted: 24 Oct 2017 Last revised: 27 Oct 2020

See all articles by Zhuojun Gu

Zhuojun Gu

The University of Texas at Arlington

Ravi Bapna

University of Minnesota - Minneapolis

Jason Chan

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management

Alok Gupta

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management

Date Written: October 23, 2017

Abstract

The most commonly cited issues with mobile apps are low user engagement and retention levels. In this paper, we explore the efficacy of crowdsourcing features on enhancing user engagement and retention in the context of mobile gaming apps. To do so, we examine two specific crowdsourcing features, namely, the ability to contribute content and the ability to access crowdsourced content. Under a 2×2 factorial design, we assess the impact of these crowdsourcing features on usage outcomes via a randomized field experiment. In our experiment, we also examine the underlying mechanisms that lead to the main observed effects. Interestingly, we find that even without contributing content, users exhibited heightened user engagement and retention when they are given the option to contribute gaming content to the app. But with actual content submission, usage improvement is promoted to a larger magnitude. In particular, results show that the content contribution feature reduces users’ hazard of ending a session and abandoning the app by 11% and 14%, respectively. Results also show that content access option only has positive effect on user retention but not user engagement. Moreover, the greatest improvement in user retention is achieved when users are treated with the full-crowdsourcing feature, which enables users to both contribute content and view crowdsourced content from the community. Finally, we find heterogeneous treatment effects in our study setting: full-crowdsourcing features tend to enhance the retention of heavy game players, while they heighten the engagement level of casual gamers. Study implications for app design and crowdsourcing are discussed.

Suggested Citation

Gu, Zhuojun and Bapna, Ravi and Chan, Jason and Gupta, Alok, Measuring the Impact of Crowdsourcing Features on Mobile App User Engagement and Retention: A Randomized Field Experiment (October 23, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3057424 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3057424

Zhuojun Gu (Contact Author)

The University of Texas at Arlington ( email )

701 S Nedderman Dr
Arlington, TX 76019

Ravi Bapna

University of Minnesota - Minneapolis ( email )

321 19th Ave S
Information and Decision Sciences
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

Jason Chan

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management ( email )

19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

HOME PAGE: http://carlsonschool.umn.edu/faculty/jason-chan

Alok Gupta

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Carlson School of Management ( email )

19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States

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