The market for children’s and educational apps continues to grow — evidenced by Apple last week announcing 1 billion downloads of educational apps from iTunes U — and that growth is leading to both consolidation and new business models. In one of the latest developments, TabTale, a publisher of children’s and family apps, has bought Kids Games Club, maker of apps like “Paint Sparkles” (a favorite of my kids), in a deal that TechCrunch understands was in the region of $3 million – $4 million. Together, the two Israel-based companies have produced nearly 200 apps, covering close to 100 million downloads. That makes it one of the bigger publishers of youth/family apps around, says TabTale CEO Sagi Schliesser.
儿童及教育应用市场正在持续增长。证据之一是上周苹果宣布其iTunes上的教育类应用下载量达到10亿次。这个市场的热火催生了并购和新的商业模式。最新的一单是以色列的儿童教育应用初创企业TabTale收购了广受儿童喜爱的“Paint Sparkles”应用的制造商——以色列初创企业Kids Games Club。据TC估计,这笔交易预计在3-400万美元之间。这两家公司开发的应用共近200款,共有近1亿下载量。TabTale的CEO,Sagi Schliesser表示,合并后将会成为最大的青少年/家庭应用出版商之一。

Schliesser says that the two companies were both profitable before the acquisition, and that they’re both still at an early stage of growth. “We’ll be disappointed if we only make $10 million in revenue this year,” he said.
Sagi Schliesser称并购前两家公司均已取得盈利,且公司都仍处在成长期。“如果今年我们的业绩低于 1000 万美元,我们会很失望的。”

Although both TabTale and Kids Games Club are focused on a young audience, the two are actually complementary: TabTale, as its name implies, focuses largely on tablet apps and stories, while Kids Games Club makes — you guessed it — lots of games and educational interactive content, largely designed for smartphones.
虽然TabTale和Kids Games Club均从事儿童教育应用,但二者具有互补性。前者主要面向平板电脑应用与故事,后者主要做面向智能手机为主的游戏和教育性交互内容。

Both are mainly focused on iOS apps, although TabTale’s newer business on the Android platform, Schliesser says, will reach 5 million downloads this year. Similarly, although up to now both have been mainly aimed at apps for under-12s, now they are looking to extend that to users in the 12-18 year old bracket. The idea is to follow their users as they get older but and to try to “keep our DNA via things like ‘nice’ arcade games,” says Schliesser.
这两家公司都主要面向iOS开发,Schliesser表示今年TabTale在安卓平台上将达500万下载量。虽然两家公司受众都以12岁以下为主,他们都希望接下来能将业务拓展到12-18岁年龄段。“主要原因是未来提高用户的粘性—‘老’用户长大了,市场也要跟着拓展。”

Up to now, the companies’ apps have been a mix of ad-free, paid downloads and free, ad-supported apps. But now that they have a sizeable catalogue, the two are also working on something new: subscription models, based on the idea of book clubs, where users paid a monthly fee for a certain number of apps.
此前,TabTale的主要收入模式分为无广告付费下载以及有广告免费使用两种。随着公司旗下应用规模的扩张,TabTale决定采用一种新的类似读书俱乐部的订购模式,部分内容免费提供,特定应用按月付费。

There are a couple of reasons to consider a book-club-style model. For one, it would create a consistent and predictable revenue stream. Additionally, it would be to help promote some of the newer or lesser-known content in its catalogue.
这种模式的好处有两个,一是收入流比较稳定,二是有助于新应用或欠知名应用的推广。

“We see users downloading between eight and ten apps every month, and we believe that children want diversity, so this kind of thing would be good,” said Schliesser. On platforms like iOS, the “club” would run through Apple’s iTunes, and work not unlike in-app subscriptions. He says that he believes it will take another business quarter to get it into place.
Schliesser说道:“TabTable用户每月大概下载8-10款应用,这种订购模式能较好地满足儿童需求的多样性。”跟应用内订购不一样的是,这种“俱乐部”模式是在苹果iTunes内运作的。他预计这会成为移动应用的一种比较新颖的业务模式。

With almost all of the content in English today, some 60% of the combined company’s downloads come from the U.S. with the UK at number two. Strangely, the third most popular market is Saudi Arabia.The company is currently adding more localized language support to grow usage in other markets.
目前TabTable上面的内容以英语为主,美国、英国分居下载量前两位,比较奇怪的是沙特排行第三。公司还计划进行国际化拓展,目前正在进行各种应用的语言本地化工作。