How to Hit 5 Million

Digital toy producer Toca Boca has hit yet another milestone: 5 million downloads of its apps made for young children. From its first app, Helicopter Taxi, to the newest in the family, Toca Kitchen, the company has seen huge success with apps that parents love - but more important, kids seem to love even more.

"We've been successful because of a combination of fantastic products and managing to get international visibility," says Emil Ovemar, producer and one of the founders of the company, which is owned by Bonnier. "We really push to give kids high quality, by daring to make completely new products and being honest with ourselves by testing things out with kids continuously. But probably most important is our fantastic team, who really know how to create magic for kids."

While both children and adults need apps that have that magical quality, kids have an even higher threshold than adults when it comes to getting things right. "What's different about designing for kids is that you yourself aren't the target group," says Ovemar. "In some ways it's easier since you can't trick yourself the way you can if you are the audience for the app. Kids are smarter and more discerning than many adults think, and we've embraced this, something that sets us apart from others I think. A good app is one that you care about and get really engaged with."

For each app that Toca Boca develops, the team starts with a topic and begins with research - looking at toy stores, music and dancing, for example. "We do a lot of research where we look at the history of toys and observe how kids play," says Ovemar. "We are very clear about what we do and what we don't do. We even have a clear visual picture of how it should look and feel. Then we often start making prototypes on paper that we test already with kids. Once we hit on something that works with kids, we start with the development and continue to refine it by checking it out with kids. You can really see in their eyes when you've gotten it right with the magic. That's what we're always looking for. And kids always come up with good ideas that we use, for example in Toca Tea Party where you can spill the drinks."

Coming up in the next weeks will be yet another new app, followed by a second shortly after. A total of 10-12 apps are expected to come out in 2012, says Ovemar. But the organic and thought-out way the company develops the apps means that the planning is done one app at a time, so exact numbers aren't the right way to look at it, he says. "We can go from the first idea to a finished product in three months, and that's great - we don't have to wait a full year to see kids' reactions as you might in other industries. We continue to focus on topics and games that kids already like. Creativity and free play is something we firmly believe in, so we'll continue with that. But just wait two to three weeks and you'll see exactly what we have in store for the future - as far as we can say."