Le Figaro leverages Firebase to increase paid subscription across mobile and web apps
Introduction
Le Figaro, established in 1826, is France's oldest and largest
daily morning newspaper. The company's mission is to provide
timely, digestible and engaging news to their readers. As one of
the first in the industry to offer digital content, Le Figaro
engages their subscribers across 11 Android, iOS and web apps
that cover news, sports, lifestyle and games. Le Figaro has about
22M monthly active users on their mobile and web apps and
120K
paid digital subscribers.
Challenge
In a saturated news app market, Le Figaro was looking to increase
paying customers and to retain existing paid subscribers. To do
this, Le Figaro's development team needed to engage readers with
personalized content at the right price point, but how could they
pull it off with limited time and resources?
Solution
Le Figaro used a number of Firebase products to retain
existing users and increase paid subscriptions. They sent
targeted notifications through Firebase Cloud Messaging
reminding customers to follow topics and journalists they
found interesting. This helped reduce churn by keeping
subscribers engaged in content they valued. They also tested
different subscription amounts using Firebase A/B testing,
which helped Le Figaro identify the price points that led to
the highest number of conversions among both Android and iOS users.
Le Figaro found their biggest increase in paid subscriptions
came from embedding real time interactive infographics into
their mobile and web app articles. When a user added
information into the infographic, it triggered a Cloud Function
that accessed data stored in Cloud Firestore
and returned a personalized infographic to the user in real
time. For example, in the article "Are you rich?" readers
could input their income into the infographic and compare it
against different income groups in Paris instantaneously. The
infographics was behind a paywall and users had to subscribe
to gain access. According to Le Figaro, this infographic
saw 3X the rate of paid subscription sign-ups compared to
their other infographics. The team built this interactive
infographic system in 3 days instead of their average time of
2-3 weeks using a traditional backend service. Using Cloud
Functions and Cloud Firestore, they estimate they were able
to reduce development time by 86%.
Results
86% Decrease in development time
3X Increased paid subscriptions sign-ups on interactive content
"Using Firebase has completely transformed Le Figaro's digital business by making it easy to rapidly innovate and personalize content for our readers. With Firebase we have seen continuous increases in retention, downloads and screen time in our apps!"
- Valentin Paquot, Mobile CTO, Le Figaro
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[],[],null,["# Le Figaro Case Study\n\n[*arrow_back*\nExplore other case studies](/case-studies) \n[View more solutions](/solutions) \n\n##### Le Figaro leverages Firebase to increase paid subscription across mobile and web apps\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\n##### Introduction\n\nLe Figaro, established in 1826, is France's oldest and largest\ndaily morning newspaper. The company's mission is to provide\ntimely, digestible and engaging news to their readers. As one of\nthe first in the industry to offer digital content, Le Figaro\nengages their subscribers across 11 Android, iOS and web apps\nthat cover news, sports, lifestyle and games. Le Figaro has about\n22M monthly active users on their mobile and web apps and\n[120K](https://www.journaldunet.com/media/publishers/1423306-les-grands-medias-papier-reussissent-leur-pari-du-web-payant/)\npaid digital subscribers.\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\n##### Challenge\n\nIn a saturated news app market, Le Figaro was looking to increase\npaying customers and to retain existing paid subscribers. To do\nthis, Le Figaro's development team needed to engage readers with\npersonalized content at the right price point, but how could they\npull it off with limited time and resources? \n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\n##### Solution\n\nLe Figaro used a number of Firebase products to retain\nexisting users and increase paid subscriptions. They sent\ntargeted notifications through [Firebase Cloud Messaging](/products/cloud-messaging)\nreminding customers to follow topics and journalists they\nfound interesting. This helped reduce churn by keeping\nsubscribers engaged in content they valued. They also tested\ndifferent subscription amounts using [Firebase A/B testing](/products/ab-testing),\nwhich helped Le Figaro identify the price points that led to\nthe highest number of conversions among both Android and iOS users. \nLe Figaro found their biggest increase in paid subscriptions\ncame from embedding real time interactive infographics into\ntheir mobile and web app articles. When a user added\ninformation into the infographic, it triggered a [Cloud Function](/products/functions)\nthat accessed data stored in [Cloud Firestore](/products/firestore)\nand returned a personalized infographic to the user in real\ntime. For example, in the article \"Are you rich?\" readers\ncould input their income into the infographic and compare it\nagainst different income groups in Paris instantaneously. The\ninfographics was behind a paywall and users had to subscribe\nto gain access. According to Le Figaro, this infographic\nsaw **3X** the rate of paid subscription sign-ups compared to\ntheir other infographics. The team built this interactive\ninfographic system in 3 days instead of their average time of\n2-3 weeks using a traditional backend service. Using Cloud\nFunctions and Cloud Firestore, they estimate they were able\nto reduce development time by **86%**.\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\nResults\n\n86% Decrease in development time\n\n3X Increased paid subscriptions sign-ups on interactive content \n\n\"Using Firebase has completely transformed Le Figaro's digital business by making it easy to rapidly innovate and personalize content for our readers. With Firebase we have seen continuous increases in retention, downloads and screen time in our apps!\"\n\n\n- Valentin Paquot, Mobile CTO, Le Figaro \nTry Firebase today\n\n\nIntegrating it into your app is easy.\n[Get started](https://console.firebase.google.com/) \n\n#### All Firebase products\n\n##### Build\n\n- [App Check](/products/app-check)\n- [App Hosting](/products/app-hosting)\n- [Authentication](/products/auth)\n- [Cloud Functions](/products/functions)\n- [Cloud Storage](/products/storage)\n- [Data Connect](/products/data-connect)\n- [Extensions](/products/extensions)\n- [Firestore](/products/firestore)\n- [Firebase ML](/products/ml)\n- [Genkit](https://genkit.dev/)\n- [Hosting](/products/hosting)\n- [Realtime Database](/products/realtime-database)\n- [Firebase AI Logic client SDKs](/products/firebase-ai-logic)\n\n[Generative AI](/products/generative-ai) \n\n##### Run\n\n- [A/B Testing](/products/ab-testing)\n- [App Distribution](/products/app-distribution)\n- [Cloud Messaging](/products/cloud-messaging)\n- [Crashlytics](/products/crashlytics)\n- [Google Analytics](/products/analytics)\n- [In-App Messaging](/products/in-app-messaging)\n- [Performance Monitoring](/products/performance)\n- [Remote Config](/products/remote-config)\n- [Test Lab](/products/test-lab)"]]