• Information Systems Review
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.183-198
• /
• 2021

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the home-training app market is growing rapidly and numerous apps are entering the market. It is becoming more difficult for an app to secure the profitability. In this study, by analyzing actual user data of a reward-based home-training app, we propose a model that predicts cash-cow users of the app. Cash-cow users are the users who watch in-stream ads to watch training videos although they cannot earn any rewards by doing so. Thus, these users make profits for the app yet do not incur any costs. The results of this study show that the users who irregularly watch training videos are more likely to be cash-cow users than the users who regularly watch training videos. This result suggests that, paradoxically, for sustainable profitability, home-training apps may need to find a way to retain the users who watch training videos irregularly so that they can be satisfied with the service and continue use the apps.