The app ecosystem
We'll first dive into the paradox that the app ecosystem presents--the prospect of fame and fortune, but the obscurity of being lost amongst the millions. We'll also cover critical questions that every intrapreneur or entrepreneur needs to think about before they venture into building a new app. The same principles apply also for new ideas for an existing app. The first things you should ask yourself are:
- Why would users want to use my app?
- For what purpose or when would they actually need it?
- Why would they keep coming back to use it?
Creating a profitable app is hard, but not impossible. There are many well-known examples. One of them is Flappy Bird. In May 2013, an obscure solo app developer living in Vietnam named Nguyen Ha Dong released a game in the iOS App Store. The initial response to the app was muted, with just a few downloads. Several months later in early 2014, the game revived with a surge in popularity, and became the most downloaded game in the App Store at that time.
At the height of its popularity in January 2014, the game was earning $50,000 a day, from in-app advertisements as well as sales. A month later in February 2014, Dong famously pulled the game from the stores. This led to a short, frenzied period when phones with the app installed were being sold at a premium online.
The app is now a much-storied example of a rags-to-riches overnight success story. But whether by serendipity or by design, Dong's success is far from typical. Few solo app developers have succeeded in monetizing their apps.
For every intrapreneur or entrepreneur with shiny, bright, new ideas, the odds are stacked against them. When Steve Jobs famously quipped There's an app for that, he really did mean it. There's an app for just about everything! So, why does your bright new idea matter?
Not every app has a flappy ending
If you build it, they will come. Well, that obviously is not true. Just publishing your app in the App Store or Play Store will not be sufficient. On both Google Play and the Apple App Store, 9 out of 10 apps that are published by developers see fewer than 5,000 downloads, ever. There are so many apps already available. How will people ever notice your app?
No matter how good your app is, it will drown in an ocean of apps without a good plan. To succeed, you first need to ask yourself some important questions:
- Who needs your app?
- How will people find out about your app?
- Why would someone download your app?
- Why would they keep coming back to use it?
- How would others hear about the app?
- What stops others from copying your app once it is successful?
Apps that make it to the top of the charts dwarf apps that don't by a large order of magnitude. There's a case to be made about long-tail characteristics in a marketplace. Amazon is known for having said that they make more money selling books that were never stocked earlier than the ones that are. Their marketplace has strong, long-tail characteristics, with several niche books finding an audience.
However, the App Store dynamics don't work well in favor of niche segments. The discoverability of an app continues to be a challenge, making it hard for publishers to succeed in niche categories. Apart from discoverability itself, there's just a little more friction involved in someone having to download an app over just visiting a mobile website.