EU App Store Price Hikes Set for October - ASO Weekly

September 23rd, 2022

by David Bell

CEO at Gummicube, Inc.

Welcome to this week’s ASO Weekly – Gummicube’s recurring segment where we discuss some of the biggest events in the mobile app industry, app store developments, and how they may affect your App Store Optimization (ASO marketing) strategy.

This week, the Apple App Store announced price hikes for apps in the app store. These price hikes will go into effect as early as October. Countries within the EU will be directly impacted with the exception of EU countries that don’t use the Euro as their main currency.

Apple Price Hikes Affecting Several Countries

Apple has released a statement saying that several countries will see a price increase on the App Store to combat inflation. In the EU most notably, apps that used to cost just 0.99 Euros will not cost 1.19 Euros. This same percentage change will affect differently prices apps proportionally.

Other countries will also be affected. According to CNET, countries Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland (EU), South Korea, Sweden (EU) and Vietnam will also see an uptick in prices. On average, all of these affected countries will see about a 20% increase in prices.

While the changes won’t impact automatic subscriptions, the price increase can have massive effects on consumer spending on the App Stores. App Store marketing and advertising efforts, in this case, might come under tremendous pressure as inflation highs record highs across the country, especially for those without an ASO strategy.

As the US grapples with yet another one of several interest rate hikes, many global markets are also feeling the pressure. Just a few weeks ago, the dollar and euro had equal strength. Today, the strong US dollar signifies a shift in consumer spending that may send ripples across all global sectors. Americans may find that buying foreign goods may actually save them dollars, but with the App Store, users across the globe are now feeling the effects of a strong dollar.

The current economic squeeze has also impacted the selling price of the new iPhone 14 and other new Apple gadgets. The bump in prices wasn’t spared in global markets either with a roughly 15% price increase compared to the last iPhone in most countries.

Lowering the Cost of App Marketing on the App Store

Finding a way to still penetrate the market without spending a lot of money on ads may be a great way to cut down on advertising costs for companies and developers looking to tighten their belts. ASO marketing helps drive down the cost of advertising on the App Store – how?

Here’s a segment from the How Can ASO Help Your Business:

“The benefits of ASO go far beyond increasing discoverability and relevance on the app stores. In fact, a fully-realized ASO strategy can help many businesses lower their return on ad spend (ROAS) over time when they use the right ASO tools and technology to back it up.ASO is all about building and conveying relevance to your audience and the app stores algorithms. The better you do that through ASO, the more lucrative your investment in any other form of mobile marketing will be.”

The less you have to prove relevant for a particular search query, the less you have to pay! It’s as simple as that, and it’s a great way to help you market your app without spending more money than you need to.