HopStop, a much-loved service that provides public transit, cab, walking and biking directions, can get you to and from wherever you want to go in major metropolitan markets throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Russia. Now, after hitting 1.24 million app downloads (in 2 years) back in January, the company is announcing a new milestone 9 months later: 2M downloads.
As we’ve written before, Google continues to maintain a stronghold on the wayfinding mobile market, but HopStop has carved out an underserved niche in transit — leading to its widespread adoption in cities. Even now as Google works to strengthen its subway directions in NY, the fact that iOS is ditching Google Maps leaves HopStop even more room to grow. In a cool and collected manner, HopStop CEO Joe Meyer admits he’s “feeling pretty good about their decision.” Given that the new Maps app on iOS doesn’t even provide transit directions, we can see why.
With these milestones in mind, HopStop’s recently released iPhone app update, which brings in major UI improvements, has led to a 2x increase in user engagement (as measured by PV’s per App Visit doubling). Meyer credits the new, “slick front end” as the reason behind this number, since “the functionality was always there, but the presentation was raw.” The iPhone app alone just passed 1M app downloads in August, so clearly Android is also an important force at play.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, is the company’s Blackberry app, which was just removed last night. “I think it’s pretty much game over [for Blackberry],” Meyer explains, and it looks like this move was all about finding the best use of resources.
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Additionally, as HopStop is ad-supported, Meyer tells TNW that there’s no demand for Blackberry apps from advertisers, which ultimately makes the app much more difficult to maintain, as the platform is on life-support. Luckily, Blackberry users will still be able to use HopStop’s mobile Web app, but still, this move is certainly telling.
With 2M downloads passed in nearly 1/3 the time it took to hit 1M, HopStop’s growth rate is accelerating. Especially now as the space gets more and more competitive, this is an app to watch.
➤ HopStop for iPad, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone
Featured image: Charles Chan
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