Local media apps have been popping up across New Zealand in the past two years and attracting a growing audience.
The Apps are focused on a geographic region and serve their communities by providing local news and information. With just half of the apps operating over a year the network of independently owned apps is already attracting an audience over 75,000 says Tony O’Regan, the Managing Director of Schistrockmedia, the company which provides the local app software platform.
“The audience for the apps is rapidly growing and the great thing is that users come back into their local app on average about once every three days,” said Tony.
Tony said this usage is proving attractive to local advertises. “The operators are finding a local advertising market for digital media which has pretty much been the domain of Facebook and Google. The local apps provide an alternative to those multinational companies and keeps the focus on the local community.”
Tony said the network is attracting over $1.5m in advertising revenue which is enabling operators to enhance local journalism at a time when it is desperately needed. “The Apps are creating journalism jobs which is great for local communities. It’s exciting to see how our operators are able to expand their operations from the new revenue stream,” said Tony.
LIMA, which stands for Local Independent Mobile Application, is the software product behind the Apps and is currently operating in New Zealand and Australia. “We have some more markets under contract and expect them to launch in the next couple of months,” said Tony.
There are currently twelve local apps operating in New Zealand under the banner of the iAppNetwork. Each app is independently owned and operated.