Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Lulu Jia, the Co-founder at Avocado Mobile about Joyland

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

We are a husband and wife team living in Irvine, CA.

In 2011, we searched for kids early learning apps for our 3-year-old daughter. After seeing her engage in the apps we downloaded, we thought given our background we could do better. We have developed mobile games for over 10 years, so we said we could do this too!

Today, we have over 23 million downloads worldwide.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

In the future, we will focus more on STEAM content. So we'll minimize the contents have little relevance to early learning or edtech.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

We combed all our existing products and rebuilt the categories to decide which parts are essential for toddlers and preschoolers. So all the reminds are the popular contents proved by time and users.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

We spent 1 year to develop time and financial mindset learning content. Each part provides plenty of exercised for the kids to practice the skill and master the learning points.

In February, we added kids coding content to Joyland. It includes 3 categories and each category has about 15 levels. Even your kid is a toddler, he/she will find the fun of coding.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

After decided to add coding part into Joyland, there are more STEAM apps than our imagination. And coding is a high frequency searching word. But there are not so much for active toddlers. We are thrilled even toddlers would have fun from coding game in Joyland. Kids will grow their early mindset on programming.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

In the upcoming future, we plan to put more STEAM contents into Joyland. Kids coding game Tynker and early learning game ABC mouse tell us how to make a great product not only meets the trend but also in a long run.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Our recommendations are 1) listen the voice/problem of the audience 2)follow the trend (in its early stage) 3) the simpler, the better

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

We decided to design app for APP Store in 2011 because we believe it is a game changer. It came with iPad and changed the habits of kids learning. Before that, children had to installed software in the desktop. And they have limitation on the venue (home/school) and time. With iPad, children are able to play and learning everywhere and anytime.

According to our data matrix, the conversion and retention rate, DAU and ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) are much higher than Android devices users'. That is why we chose IOS as our mainly platforms to release the apps.

Now, we are busy in transplanting Joyland to Amazon and Android platform as well. Hope the users on these two platforms could see it shortly.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

1. Joyland is certified by the kidSAFE Seal Program target for age 3-8 year old children;

2. 900+ educational activities including geography, time and coin learning; (new games are added monthly)

3. Over 23 million downloads for our games

Joyland is a perfect supplement to kids daily school learning

1. Most of the content in our app is purchased by different schools over 1.2 million times!

2. learning information and skills based on Common Core States Standards.

You can view Joyland here