YouVersion

We are continually blown away by the growth of YouVersion and want to thank you for the huge part you’ve played. Sharing Scripture, your reading plans, and YouVersion Live events on Twitter and Facebook or by email has caused God’s Word to spread faster than it ever has before…virally. Keep it up!

We wanted to take a moment and celebrate passing a big milestone: 4 million YouVersion mobile app users on the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Java, and Palm. Here is what the growth curve looked like over the past 6 months:

It’s exciting to see so many people engaging with Scripture on their mobile devices, as well as the growing momentum of YouVersion mobile apps. Each month, 500,000-600,000 new users install the YouVersion Bible app on their phone or mobile device. Here is a look at our top 3 mobile platforms over the past 6 months:

Top 5 iPhone Devices:

1. 1. iPhone 3G
2. 2. iPod Touch
3. 3. iPhone 3GS
4. 4. iPhone Edge
5. 5. iPod Touch (first generation)

-We also see some iPad users have YouVersion installed!

Top 5 Blackberry Devices:

1. 1. 8300/ Curve
2. 2. 8330m/ Curve
3. 3. 8900/Curve
4. 4. 9000/Bold
5. 5. 9630/Tour

Top 5 Android Devices:Top 5 Android Devices:

1. 1. T-Mobile G1
2. 2. Motorola Droid
3. 3. T-Mobile MyTouch
4. 4. HTC Hero
5. 5. HTC Eris

We’re passionate about mobile because it’s proven incredibly effective in allowing millions of people around the world to access Scripture. As you may remember, just over a month ago we celebrated that YouVersion users had spent over one billion minutes reading the Bible on their mobile devices and we expect to hit 2 billion very soon.

Because we’re so excited about hitting this milestone we’re going to follow it up with a little celebration. So take a moment to subscribe in the sidebar follow us on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook and stay in the loop!

Phase one of YouVersion’s scaling process was completed a little over a week ago. It involved both hardware and software upgrades to help handle the increased traffic from both website visitors and mobile application users. You can read more about that process here, but we’re already seeing drastic improvements in up-time and reliability.

While the engineering side of YouVersion’s scaling was under way, we quietly started a project to scale our support infrastructure to better serve the millions of new users that are being added to the YouVersion community. With YouVersion adding more than 10,000 new users every day, it was apparent that our former support setup wasn’t going to work.

Nearing the end of 2009, we set out to overhaul our user support infrastructure so that it could scale to serve tens of millions of users efficiently and effectively.

First, we moved from GetSatisfaction to Zendesk (http://support.youversion.com). Zendesk allows us to support users one-on-one through a private ticketing system while maintaining an open forum environment where the YouVersion community can help each other find answers. Second, we assigned a single person to be responsible for ongoing support. This doesn’t mean that one person has to answer every support request. Rather, this person is responsible for making sure the YouVersion community is cared for, heard, and helped. It’s more of a leadership role than a “customer service representative” role.

The most important change has been who supports the YouVersion community. While we have a dedicated support manager to guide and lead in this area, we’re going to start leaning on volunteers to provide answers and troubleshoot problems for other YouVersion users. The volunteers we’re trusting with this role are handpicked to join this team; the YouVersion Community Champions.

If you’re interested in being a YouVersion Community Champion, here’s what we’re looking for:

– Used YouVersion for at least 4 months on a very regular basis
– Very familiar with the main website and at least one YouVersion mobile application
– Displayed the ability and willingness to meaningfully help other YouVersion users in the public support forums by answering questions or providing guidance

We’re excited about how this new approach to user support will provide value to the entire YouVersion community. If you’d like to know more about volunteering for YouVersion support or in other areas, go to http://goo.gl/9CkB. If you’d like to sign up immediately, go to http://goo.gl/XixQ.

With the new system in place, we’re confident that we’ll be able to continue to effectively support the ballooning YouVersion user-base as it grows into the tens of millions. And what’s more, we’re prepared to make constant adjustments and improvements as necessary to make sure the YouVersion community is always well cared for.