Title: Determinants of health apps' demand: a study on Google Play Store

Authors: Cândida Sofia Machado; Cláudia Cardoso; Natália Lemos

Addresses: School of Management, Polytechnic University of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), Portugal ' School of Management, Polytechnic University of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), Portugal ' 2Ai, Polytechnic University of Cávado and Ave (IPCA), Portugal

Abstract: Markets for health apps are complex, with multiple actors and interactions between them. Therefore, a successful business model must guarantee adequate revenues for app developers, and simultaneously value for users to guarantee demand. To a sample of 200 health apps in the Portuguese Google Play Store, we applied ordinal regression models to understand what characteristics of health apps influence their demand, measured in terms of downloads. We find that monetisation strategies are crucial to explain health apps' demand. Free to download, in-app purchases and in-app ads increase downloads. Additionally, the quality of the app is of significant importance to ensure users' satisfaction and to enhance the visibility and demand of the app. By presenting a comprehensive analysis of the factors that impact the success of a mobile app, these findings should be of interest to researchers and app developers.

Keywords: mobile apps; e-Health; demand for health apps; app characteristics; monetisation mechanisms; Google Play Store.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2025.143002

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2025 Vol.20 No.1, pp.98 - 117

Received: 14 Mar 2023
Accepted: 07 Jan 2024
Published online: 02 Dec 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article