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.
兒童及教育應(yīng)用市場正在持續(xù)增長。證據(jù)之一是上周蘋果宣布其iTunes上的教育類應(yīng)用下載量達(dá)到10億次。這個市場的熱火催生了并購和新的商業(yè)模式。最新的一單是以色列的兒童教育應(yīng)用初創(chuàng)企業(yè)TabTale收購了廣受兒童喜愛的“Paint Sparkles”應(yīng)用的制造商——以色列初創(chuàng)企業(yè)Kids Games Club。據(jù)TC估計，這筆交易預(yù)計在3-400萬美元之間。這兩家公司開發(fā)的應(yīng)用共近200款，共有近1億下載量。TabTale的CEO，Sagi Schliesser表示，合并后將會成為最大的青少年/家庭應(yīng)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稱并購前兩家公司均已取得盈利，且公司都仍處在成長期。“如果今年我們的業(yè)績低于 1000 萬美元，我們會很失望的?！?/div>

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.
雖然TabTale和Kids Games Club均從事兒童教育應(yīng)用，但二者具有互補性。前者主要面向平板電腦應(yīng)用與故事，后者主要做面向智能手機(jī)為主的游戲和教育性交互內(nèi)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.
這兩家公司都主要面向iOS開發(fā)，Schliesser表示今年TabTale在安卓平臺上將達(dá)500萬下載量。雖然兩家公司受眾都以12歲以下為主，他們都希望接下來能將業(yè)務(wù)拓展到12-18歲年齡段。“主要原因是未來提高用戶的粘性—‘老’用戶長大了，市場也要跟著拓展。”

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的主要收入模式分為無廣告付費下載以及有廣告免費使用兩種。隨著公司旗下應(yīng)用規(guī)模的擴(kuò)張，TabTale決定采用一種新的類似讀書俱樂部的訂購模式，部分內(nèi)容免費提供，特定應(yīng)用按月付費。

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.
這種模式的好處有兩個，一是收入流比較穩(wěn)定，二是有助于新應(yīng)用或欠知名應(yīng)用的推廣。

“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說道：“TabTable用戶每月大概下載8-10款應(yīng)用，這種訂購模式能較好地滿足兒童需求的多樣性。”跟應(yīng)用內(nèi)訂購不一樣的是，這種“俱樂部”模式是在蘋果iTunes內(nèi)運作的。他預(yù)計這會成為移動應(yīng)用的一種比較新穎的業(yè)務(wù)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上面的內(nèi)容以英語為主，美國、英國分居下載量前兩位，比較奇怪的是沙特排行第三。公司還計劃進(jìn)行國際化拓展，目前正在進(jìn)行各種應(yīng)用的語言本地化工作。?