% Lokální makra patří do hlavního souboru, ne sem.
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% která jsou jen pro tento dokument. Uživatelé si pravděpodobně budou
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\def\ctustyle{{\tenss CTUstyle}}
\def\ttb{\tt\char`\\} % pro tisk kontrolních sekvencí v tabulkách

\label[Competitor Analysis]
\chap Competitor Analysis



This chapter is dedicated to competitor analysis. I am going to focus on applications that also can display cinema screenings. I won't only be comparing mobile application I'll also include web application that offers to simplify the process of searching for screening that fits the user needs. I have split the competitors into  direct and non-direct.

\label[Direct Competitors]
\sec Direct Competitors

As direct competitors, I take into account mobile application that offers a solution for the same problem as the subject application of this project, and this would mean searching for screening on a smartphone.
I've searched for on two platforms and their specific application markets ("App Store" for iOS and "Google play" for Android) based on keywords. Based on this search I've found several applications that I would be stating below.


\label[Art Kina]
\secc Art Kina

This application is released for both analyzed platforms. This application has a rating of 4.7/5 on the Apple App Store, and it was updated three months ago. On Google Play, it also has high rating of 4.7/5. 

The primary goal of the application to display the program for small independent cinemas, for instance, Bio Oko, Lucerna. The application enables to see the screening times for the cinema in chronological order. Like other features, the user can see the rating of the film, see the prices for the screening and set a notification for the film.

\break

\label[Kinohled]
\secc Kinohled
This application is only on the iOS platform from Apple. The application does not have a very good rating as the only two reviews display rating the application 1/5. Also, the last update was 2.10.2015, so it seems that the application was abandoned by the developers but still works.

The application is straightforward. When opened you are shown one screen with all the films in cinemas, and at the corners, you can continue to customize the results. In the left corner, you can select the city you want to look in and in the right corner you can choose the date to see for the screenings. For each film, you see the Czech and English name. What genre the movie is and how long it is. Also if you click on the name of the cinema you get redirected out from the application into a browser.

\medskip \clabel[Kinohled application main screen (version: 1.3)]{Kinohled application main screen (version: 1.3)}
\picw=6.5cm \cinspic img/kinohled.png
\caption/f Kinohled application main screen (version: 1.3)
\medskip

\label[CSFD]
\secc CSFD
Czech-Slovak movie database CSFD, in short, is one of the biggest competitors on the Czech market. It's the biggest website within this subject with approximately 3 million unique users a month.

The main focus of CSFD is to be as the title might indicate is to be a film database. This would mean providing information regarding movies, actors, and directors in the Czech language. In other things, the portal has community features like writing reviews for films and giving star ratings to films.
CSFD also have many other features like premier calendar, new regarding films in general and also display current TV program.

CSFD also has a mobile application. It should have a similar features set as the web application. As one of the features is a simple view for cinema screening times, this would mean the application is solving the same kind of problem but is quite basic. It displays just data based on picked cinema, so you are not able to search for screenings of the film regardless of cinema.

\medskip \clabel[CSFD application, screen with times for a cinema (version: 2.2.4)]{CSFD application, screen with times for a cinema (version: 2.2.4)}
\picw=6.5cm \cinspic img/csfd.png
\caption/f CSFD application, screen with times for a cinema (version: 2.2.4)
\medskip

\label[FDB.cz]
\secc FDB.cz
Fdb.cz as has the similar goal in mind as CSFD that is to be a film database. This would mean to inform about film and details regarding them. Other than this the portal also has features ranging from news to TV program and also a cinema program.

The primary product is their website. The website is trying to show as much information as possible without considering the end user. On the main page, you can find information about movie premieres, TV program with tips what to watch, news and films that are about to be released on DVD and BLU-RAY. This indicates the FDB is trying to please everyone when it comes to film and TV information but TV is their primary goal. They show cinema screenings in a similar way like CSFD. So after picking a city and a cinema place you are given a table with all the screenings for the day.

FDB also have their mobile application. That tries to implement all the features that the web application has. This means that the layout seems cluttered and confusing. Similarly to the web application, the mobile app focuses on the TV program and as a side feature is also displays cinema program.

\medskip \clabel[ Fdb.cz application, screen with times for a cinema (version: 7.00)]{ Fdb.cz application, screen with times for a cinema (version: 7.00)}
\picw=6.5cm \cinspic img/fdb.png
\caption/f Fdb.cz application, screen with times for a cinema (version: 7.00)
\medskip

This feature works in a way that you select a city and then a cinema place that you want to see the program for. A list of all films screened is loaded with the rating, length and with basic information. The film is repeated in the list of its different in a way that it has subtitles or is in Czech. This also applies to the type of technology for instance 3D.

\label[Indirect competitors]
\sec Indirect competitors
For this analysis, an indirect competitor is an application that enables to solve the same problem or enables to display similar data. But doesn't target the same audience or use case as the subject of this project. Most of the application mentioned below are websites that are designed to be used on a personal computer and not a mobile device with a smaller screen.

The research was done similarly as the direct competition. I tried searching keywords in a search engine and looked into top results. 

\label[CSFD]
\secc CSFD
I would like to mention CSFD again as they a feature-rich web application and as the biggest site regarding this topic.

And because of the web application contains a part that shows screening times for cinemas. This is a page where you can see a table for all screenings for a cinema. It solves the same problem in a way. But our application mainly focuses on a native mobile app. 

That's because the user always doesn't have to be in perfect conditions for searching. This would mean that the user could be outside or doesn't have ideal lighting or is a rush and doesn't have time to compare all the films and their screening times. Table with the film names is enough if you are sitting behind a computer with large enough screen where you can open multiple tabs with different films, reviews and choose what movie to pick. And then search through various cinema screening tables to find the perfect for him. 

The other difference could be a user that plans his visit to the movies ahead of time because he can schedule his time to go the closest cinema to him. Then the website is perfectly suitable for this task. But our app is designed to be used in the moment and to search for screenings at the spot. For example, you outside only with your smartphone and you want to go to see a movie. So you pick a film you like, and you want to see what's the earliest screening and where immediately.

\label[Informuji.cz]
\secc Informuji.cz

Informuji is a website that has information about cultural events happening. They offer news, tips for trips and calendar of events. One of it's topics are also screening times from cinemas.

The website enables to pick a specific venue and see its projects. But it also allows you to choose a film form a list. When you select one of the films, you get a selection of all cinemas that have this film, and you see the screening times. When you choose a movie place, you see a list of films with their ratings and times.

\label[dokina.cz]
\secc Dokina.cz

Dokina.cz is a portal that its main subject is to provide information about the news in the movie world. This website is part of the tiscali.cz group. This website is not like much similar application looks very professional and pleasant for the user to navigate, in my opinion, it's the best website out of all in this analysis. The page also displays screening times and as many other in a table format. The timetable is clean and easy to navigate, and a nice feature is a line showing what time it is on the table so at a glance you can get a sense of time when looking for a screening. 

\label[Sms.cz]
\secc Sms.cz

This website contains a lot of interesting information for its users. For instance, it includes TV program, jokes, horoscopes and news from culture. In the culture section, you have information about theater, clubs, and cinema. The cinema section also has the information about screening times. It's displayed in a list of cinema places, and when selected you have a list of all the films with film name, genre, director and a short description for each one with screening time on the right side.

\label[Kinohled.cz]
\secc Kinohled.cz

Kinohled was once already mentioned as a mobile app with the same name. The web application has feature parity with the smartphone app. The user of the website can choose the city and date, and after selecting this information, a list of all film appears that are screened on the selected date. Every film has information about rating from multiple sites (CSFD, IMDB, FDB), a link for a movie trailer and a list of all the cinemas where the movie is screened with information about it.

\label[Google]
\secc Google
Google also has a feature that shows the screening times. If you try to google the name of the film, you not only get information about the film, the cast but you also get a table that contains the information about screenings.

\label[Cinestar]
\secc Cinestar

Cinestar is one of the companies that run cinemas in the Czech Republic. As of right now, it has 13 cinemas in 11 cities across the country. This company enables its costumers to reserve a spot for a specific screening or directly buy the ticket and save it in a digital format that is verified at the entrance to cinema area. When it comes how they display the information about screening, it's a table for each cinema individually with categories based on the screening technology and for each film information about language and age restriction.

As a user, you have all the necessary information at a glance, but the problem is all adjusted work with a big screen, and you can run into a problem when having a small smartphone touchscreen. The problem is that the table doesn't fully fit on the small screen and it's hard to navigate using touch through it, and it's even harder to compare different cinema locations. The next step would be to reserve or buy a spot for the movie. But on the phone again this quite a challenge as the page is not optimized for a touchscreen.

\label[Cinemacity, Premiere Cinemas, and others]
\secc Cinemacity, Premiere Cinemas, and others

In this section, I would like to summarize other cinema chains, and independent cinemas as most of them have similar features for its customers.


Cinemacity is the largest cinema chain in the Czech Republic with 15 cinemas across the country. Like others, it offers to reserve and buy tickets online. When the ticket is purchased, you get a QR code in an email that you show at the entrance to the cinema. The website is again primarily designed to work with a computer, and you have no option to compare films and their screenings. And as the company has multiple cinemas in the same city, then the user has no easy way of looking for the best suitable location for him. 


Premiere Cinemas, this company runs three cinemas across the country and as other offers to buy and reserve tickets. But their website has a mobile version that is optimized for touchscreen interaction. 

The application in the early versions won't be focusing on independent cinemas. For instance, Lucerna or Bio Oko as they don't that many screening rooms and they don't that many screenings every day. But they still offer to buy a ticket online and send it into an application called Cool Ticket.

\label[The appearance of new competitors]
\sec The appearance of new competitors

A new application with the solution to the same problem can be developed very quickly. But if the user is satisfied with the application that he is using there is a little chance for him to look for alternatives. But the application must be kept up to date with feature updates. And it has to be stable because if the app crashes just a few times, the users start looking for alternatives. And stability is the biggest concern because of the inexperienced team. So if any competitor would have even an application with fewer features but more stable, the users would switch to it, and they would lose trust in our product.

Another possibility is that one of the applications mentioned above could be redesigned to a similar solution.  But that's very unlikely because most of them have it just as a side feature and the rest are not updated. And even if they did some changes to the features, the change could go unnoticed by our user base without some direct marketing.

But if one of the big companies (for instance CSFD) would redesign their application, there is a big chance of it following up with a marketing campaign. This could have a significant impact on our application and would probably lead to changes in the direction or termination of the development.

Further on I would be describing features that could mitigate this issues and bring value to the end user which none of the current competitors can. 


\label[Conclusion]
\sec Conclusion
I would like to sum up the whole analysis and option for our application.

When it comes to direct competitors I found out that there are a few applications that can deliver the same functionality. But upon further investigation, I found out that a lot of the users are not happy with current solutions and give bad reviews to the applications. One of the other things is that some of the application are not actively developed and could stop working with any software update to the platform. That could mean a shift of users to our solution. 

Other things to take into account are the design and features which each application has. Most of the mobile applications have the display of screening times just as a side feature, and it's missing depth or any other advanced features for the user. For instance to pick a film and easily see where it's being screened at a glance and with what technology it's being screened in (Dolby Atmos, 3D). Also, it's missing any kind of easy comparison between cinemas. Also, another aspect is that many of the mobile apps look very dated and do not follow concepts that people are used to or they are not updated to support new phones. 

When it comes to indirect competition, the user has many options to choose from. As there are many tools to search on the computer and you can easily compare just by opening multiple tabs in the browser or have multiple windows. When searching on a computer, you often have a better environment to do so and even have more time, as this application should be optimized to work in bad condition (like rain, night).

So if our application gets to be properly maintained and has advanced features can find its users on the market. Even if there are other solutions, there is a blind spot when it comes to this specific problem. There is a significant thread that the competitors adjust if this application succeeds, but in my opinion, if the users are happy with the application, they have no reasons to switch to another until it's far worse than the others.

Based on this competitors analysis I think that this is a worthy application and could find its market share and has a chance to succeed. The reason is there is no application on the market dealing with certain issues in the area and will further define these areas in the next chapters.