5k active users and 2k$ revenue with an app for a niche market. Should I continue?
I built an native app (iOS/Android) which is used monthly by 5k active users (7k downloads). This app shows stats for amateur football (soccer) players in Switzerland. Target audience is amateur football players and supporters. My estimation is they are approx. 40’000. I made 2000$ within 6 months selling in app purchases (IAP price: ~4$, 10% paying users).
In app purchases are access to specific stats. You buy access once and you get the access for one year.
I am wondering if I should try to find other business models like ads or other in app purchases. I am also wondering if I should spend time trying to get more users.
Maybe my market is too small and I should quit and try to find new market and build new apps.
I need your advices.
Rinse and repeat in different markets and countries?
This is probably my favorite suggestion: The dating app model. Figure out a list of other sports and in other areas that would possibly use a similar app, find a data source for each of them, do the modest updates to make that work, and boom, new revenue stream.
Yes it could be a good idea. The main problem is the languages. Each country has is own language. Hard to understand the data sources in native language. It also hard to promote and translate the app if you do not know the language. But I could try to do it for other sports in my country... but then the problem is the market size... soccer is the most popular sport and other sports have really small audiances.
Right, but the small audience is what you want: if you build a soccer app you'll be in a sea of 50,000 soccer apps. Build a lacrosse app, you'll be the only one.
This is smart way to go for a niche market and be the top player.
Do you speak German? That would open up Austria as your logical next step and then Germany (which will be more competitive).
I do not speak german (I am from the french part of Switzerland).
But I translated my app with a friend for german customers. Do you play football? Do you know the Austria's and German's amateur football ecosystem? If you do or if you are motivated do not hesitate to DM me
I might have somebody who might be interested and is a native German and English speaker. I'll forward this thread to him.
I played as a kid but don't speak German. It was just my guess of your language. French probably gives you even more options, though... in Europe, northern Africa, Quebec, etc...
$4/year seems like a low price point on which to build a business. How did you arrive at that price?
I think the first thing I would be inclined to try is doubling the price and seeing if that affects total revenue. If you are able to do some cohort analysis, I would expect the number of people converting to paid after the increase would drop, but I suspect the total revenue might be higher.
The second thing I might try would be to contact your current customers and ask them directly - "What would this app have to do to make it worth $9.99/month to you?". You might spot trends in the feedback that might point to either more premium features, or even a slight change in direction (e.g. reporting pro stats, some kind of tracking, etc.)
Hope that helps.
Edit: congrats on 5k users! That's awesome! 🎉
Thanks ✌🏼
Your advice about asking current customers is really good! I will do it (but I do not know if apple or android give customers contact).
Doubling the price is a good idea too. I will probably try to do it for when the next season starts... But I am really afraid about the negative comments and troll I could get.
We just put up our prices by 20% (more on that here: https://medium.com/delivering-deskbeers/money-isnt-something-people-like-to-talk-about-d6919351bda9)
I was terrified that we would lose a good chunk of our customers. I put it off and put it off and eventually it started to really hurt our business. My hand was forced and we put the prices up.
So far, no one has said a word.
Also, don't forget, in this case you're putting the price up only for new users. Everyone that has already paid their $4 won't notice the change. New folk will only see the new price, as if it was always that price. If they don't like it, they won't pay for it. Simple as that.
I humbly suggest the fear of putting the price up is not as bad as the reality.
Yeah that's interesting. Actually I already increased the prices of my IAPs from 3$ to 5$ (60%) two months ago. Nobody said anything but we are talking about small amounts. Your post is interesting and make me think about trying to increase the price...
But one point about what you said, current customer will see the new price when the new soccer season and new access will arrive.
So the majority of people here advise me to try to "apply" my app to other market (countries/sports) @MeansNoWaaris @thwiv @alchemist @vez1132 @Responsek. So this tell me that I should stop to promote and develop my current app.
Other people gave me other advice like increase IAP prices or add more premium features.
I have to think about it. But it seems that I am on something. Thanks everyone for giving me advices.
To be clear, I was suggesting you use the assets you've developed to expand to more markets. I wouldn't shut down service in a market that's already got traction, though.
Do it for India+Cricket
Amateur market available.
Market size also huge. Hit me up if you require support.
Ok. I will try to make a small analysis of the market. Do not hesitate do DM me if you want to collaborate.
Hey Adrien.. sent you a request on LI.
I'd saturate the market you're in before changing it.
Saturate? What do you mean?
It looks like most advice is: try to move the platform to a different market, and try to optimise the current business (pricing mainly).
Both are good ideas.
Another option is to double down on the existing market you have and try to sell more to them. Maybe you have a knowledge of that market that can be further developed.
This is what I would like to do. The main reason is that I know this market because I am part of this market. My doubt was about having 5k active customers and "only" 2k$ revenue within 6 months... Is it worth to develop more IAP and premium access or not. Otherwise it is better to let this app live like that and try other thing more profitable.
I would:
Perform some price experimentation
Get the "Traction" book and systematically run through the relevant traction channels, testing each one and seeing if an even bigger audience can be found
And while that's going on, consider your next offering for your audience. Maybe your audience also run swimming clubs. Or something.
Offer subscriptions instead of consumables. That way that revenue is recurring.
Yes but what about the price of the subscription? Currently users pay ~4$ to access premium data every year.
You can change the pricing structure for new members.
Old members: $4 a year
New members - 3 options: $4/m, $3/m ($9 quarterly), $2/m ($24 a year).
Keep adjusting till you find the golden pricing structure.
Good idea. Month subscription seems to be a good option. I just have to check how to manage subscription on apple and android... it will take some time to develop but it probably worth
Do you have the same codebase for both the iOS and Android app? For iOS I can recommend SwiftyStoreKit which makes it really easy.
No I use react native :-S
You created a vertical product (from front to end for a specific niche/problem/goal). As indicated by others in the comments, you need to see how you can scale this vertically by taking the common and reusable components of your solution and forming it into a solution for multiple verticals.
Meanwhile, let this one run and provide passive income and online presence as a showcase example.
Thanks for the recommendation
I think the stat is that 5-10% of users drive games revenue. These are the users who, for whatever reason, just like spending a lot of money.
If your only IAP is 4/year then that is your problem. What you need are tiers of IAP, with varying rewards.
I have no idea what they'd be, but I wouldn't shy away from a $100 IAP - tonnes of games have them, and they don't have them just to annoy their users.
Awesome job at acquiring the 5K users. If you're interested in expanding to a new market with the same type of app, let me know. There's a niche, but still huge, market in the US for a similar style app that you have. If you added a "claim your profile" feature, you might be able to see more engagement.
Interesting! I will probably contact you. Sorry but I do not understand your "claim your profile" advice
Feel free to reach out anytime. I love collaborating with my fellow IndieHackers.
Where do you collect these stats from? Atlanta is crazy about soccer because of Atlanta United. I am wondering if your app has market here.
I collect my data from official amateur soccer score/results website. Then I compute and combine data to make new stats. It is about amateur soccer and not professional soccer. Professional soccer players and teams already have their apps with stats.
Ads may ruin the experience. I think you should try and explore more premium features like @jianinglai suggested.
Yes I agree Ads could ruin experience. Until now app showed stats and rankings. I just add a menu with a "social wall" where user can upload their video like their best goals, tricks and fails like 9gag. I was thinking about putting ads between videos posts like 9gag. But currently I have only 15 posts in 2 weeks. It is not the start I was hoping for.
Are you using analytics? Maybe people didn't notice the new feature, maybe it's not clear how it works or maybe they just didn't like it.
Yes I am using it (firebase analytics). 10% of my users have seen at least one time the social wall. The new version of my app (with the new feature) was to already downloaded by all the users. Hard to say if they like it or not...
2 weeks, all of them have the last version and only 10% have seen the new feature. I'd send a notification or show some kind of message about the new feature.
Yes I am going to do something like that.
It seems like you've definitely built something that people want (5k active users)!
I'm sure you've thought about this before, but...
Have you tried playing around with the IAP price?
What about building additional premium features that would encourage more people to pay?
Good luck!
Jonathan
Thanks for the answer.
Yes I played with the price. At the beginning the price for each IAP was 3$. Now I have a range from 2$ to 5$. I do not dare to increase the price more.
Yes this is what I would like to do. But I do not know if it worth to take the time to develop additional feature. My thought is, if my app was good, the target market (40'000 people) should already had download it. So it is hard for me to be confident.
that's not true, you're never going to get 100% of a market. That's honestly a ridiculous notion, debase yourself of that.
50% of a market is considered massive and effectively insurmountable. Also, how many ads are you buying, or what is the social concept?
Also, consider that 40K number - If you have a team of 11 players, its plausible that half - so 5 - would share the data over a pint at the pub. That means you only have 40000/5 likely users, or 8K.
I will debase myself of that ;-)
8K users could be a good achievement.
Social concept is a social feed inside the current app where user can post videos. Then all other users can watch and like the video through the social feed. It is a bit like 9gag but only for soccer content. Like 9 gag I would like to sell ads space between viedo posts.
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