Exclusive: eToro Focuses on Mobile User Experience By Adopting Newly-Founded Appsee

The substantial increase in trading volume generated among retail FX brokers since the adoption by the majority of market participants of mobile trading platforms has led to a drive toward refining this method of engaging clients.

There is indeed a school of thought which suggests among developers at the leading edge of platform design, that emphasis on trading via mobile devices may eventually prevail over desktop platform usage, especially with FX companies which place a high priority on social trading.

The recent founding of Appsee by Zahi Boussiba and Yoni Douek, joined by Alix Hecht, former Sales Director of TechFinancials is a case in point.

Although Appsee's target audience is not specific to the FX industry, Ms. Hecht explained to Forex Magnates that a series of FX companies which consider mobile access to their trading platforms, as well as the need to ensure efficiency and the ability to maximize use of mobile platforms as matters of importance have demonstrated an interest, with one particular firm utilizing it already.

"Appsee is a mobile Analytics platform that enables app developers and publishers to measure, understand and improve the user experience in their applications," Ms. Hecht explained to Forex Magnates.

"In the Forex industry, application response time is critical for customer engagement and retention. Customers who experience such technical problems while using the application, will drop off, most of the time never to return. It means a sure loss of revenues.

By integrating Appsee's in-app analytics platform, Forex companies will be able to put themselves into their customers’ shoes, visually understand exactly how they interact with the app and to gain actionable insights for optimizing their application, which will result in increased customer retention and revenues," she said.

Appsee Onboards eToro

eToro's adoption of Appsee is therefore a point of interest, as the trend toward platform-neutral social trading networks has begun to gain momentum, therefore generating a need for companies vying for market share in not only retail FX brokerage business to further engage their clients and encourage loyalty, but also for social trading providers to begin to do the same.

Social trading expert Leon Yohai, CEO of ZuluTrade, recently shared his view on this matter, along with the importance of mobile accessibility, in a discussion on the Forex Magnates Meet The Experts forum, in which he conveyed his belief that the industry is moving in this direction with vigor and that the best is yet to come, "I believe mobile to be perhaps the most important recent development in the Forex industry and whose implications will be so deep that we currently seem to have just scratched the surface of the changes always connected users will bring to the industry. I, for one, am excited on the potential of the combination of autotrading and mobile," stated Mr. Yohai.

Shimon Koifman, eToro's Head of Mobile explained today to Forex Magnates that the company is "Using Appsee as an analytics tool to improve eToro's iOS applications. It mainly helps us better understand crashes that occur on our iOS applications as well as to better see problems with user registration/login."

Whether outsourcing such matters to new and innovative firms is the way forward for enhancing the user experience on mobile platforms is yet unknown, however large retail FX companies are concentrating efforts on adding further functionality to mobile applications, adding strength to the notion that mobile platforms may in some ways supplant desktop.

Social Trading Platforms Vie For Mobile Client Loyalty

FXCM's addition of deposit facilities to its mobile application in October was a particular indicator of the company's requisite need to afford full functionality to mobile users, and CMC Markets focused on its mobile platforms during the third quarter of last year.

The main drivers behind Ms. Hecht's decision to develop and offer this particular innovation to FX firms as well as a wider market was not explained to Forex Magnates, however Ms. Hecht's understanding of factors which generate sales and retain clients is one of her specific fortes, having held senior sales positions at retail OTC derivatives company SuperDerivatives, as well as having covered the EMEA and APAC regions at technology provider CheckMarx.

Indeed, with binary options technology providers recent attempts to gain traction within the social trading arena by launching platform-based networks, an emulation of the FX industry is apparent, although companies lining up to trumpet the success of this within binary options are apparent by their silence.

Competition within the entire ecosystem of technology providers which have built their business on retail FX and binary options is increasing, and the drive to use it to create customer loyalty, retention and increase volumes is most certainly more than apparent. In the recently launched Forex Magnates Quarterly Industry Report for Q4 of 2013, Forex Magnates investigates and explains this in detail, providing full information on how the industry seeks to enter 2014 with an emphasis on increasing volumes through today's ever-advancing technology.