4k VS. 400k, although ChatPDF is more powerful than PDF ai, we failed
What is ChatPDF?
ChatPDF is a document analysis tool that can help you analyze 39+ types of document(including 27+ types of local document, 15+ types of web post, 17+ AI add-ons), like PDF,Office Word, Excel, PPT, Form, Image, Audio, Video; and extract useful information from them.
ChatPDF Link:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chatpdf➶-chat-with-39 -ty/inmogmmafcadkabkapjmpikbciiplajf?hl=en&authuser=0
ChatPDF Website:
https://askdocs.azurewebsites.net/
ChatPDF Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2wIoRpEdJM
✅ ChatPDF supports chat with 39+ types of documents.
✅ ChatPDF built-in 11+ Powerful AI, including GPT-4, ChatGPT, Microsoft Azure AI.
✅ ChatPDF built-in 17+ AI Add-ons.
✅ ChatPDF supports 12+ Chat Modes.
✅ Chat Multiple Documents With AI
✅ Chat Single Document With AI
✅ Chat Part Of Document With AI
What is PDF.ai?
PDF.ai is a PDF tool, it's a Chrome Browser Extension. Here is its blurb:
The ultimate ChatPDF extension that allows you to chat with any PDF using AI: ask questions, get summaries, find anything you need!
Introducing the ultimate ChatPDF Chrome extension that allows you to chat with any PDF! 🥳
Engage effortlessly with PDFs from external .pdf files or your local .pdf files.
We also have native integrations with Google Drive and Dropbox.
PDF.ai is one of the competitors of ChatPDF.
How did we build it(ChatPDF)?
Since March this year, we have built more than 35 versions of ChatPDF, currently, the latest version of ChatPDF is V4.4.5.
We learned some good products and constructed some useful features for working with documents.
We have integrated more than 11 powerful AIs into ChatPDF, including GPT-4, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Azure AI. It is also very powerful despite its complex code!
We think it's worth the effort! We are proud to say that it is one of the most advanced documentation tools in the world.
Why did we fail?
Although we are proud to have built such a ChatPDF, we regret that it lags behind its competitors! PDF.ai has 400k+ users while ChatPDF has only 4k users. This is a huge gap and a sign that we are failing miserably!
We admit that every version of ChatPDF has more or less bugs, however, it is hard to imagine that these bugs would cause such a big gap!
Is such a huge gap caused by the difference in the intensity of advertising and promotion? We don't know, we really don't have a lot of resources to promote ChatPDF.
We don't know what caused such a huge gap. We want to know why.
However, we lack a fresh perspective on ChatPDF.
We hope you can give us some ideas.
The only difference between you and the founder of PDf.ai is that Damon (the founder), has built another very successful product, completely bootstrapped, for a couple of years.
He knows how to market a product, he's now a monster in marketing, SEO, and social presence.
He knows that marketing is the most important stuff, he initially purchased the product, and mapped it on a much better domain.
He has now the money to pay for content creation and influencers.
It's all about marketing.
But I don't understand why you say that you failed.
4k is a great result.
Remember that you are playing the long-term game with a SaaS product, so my suggestion is to be patient, work on distribution channels, and look at your competitors much less.
What is even more frustrating is that if I remember correctly, in May, the gap between ChatPDF and PDF.ai was smallest. At that time, ChatPDF Extension had 1.5k~2k users and PDF.ai Extension had 4K users.
I was surprised at how much growth PDF.ai had, I even thought I actually misremembered the numbers
But I don't understand why you say that you failed.
4k is a great result.
Because we think ChatPDF is one of the most powerful document tools in the world. The advantages and features of ChatPDF are far superior to those of its competitors. However, even such a powerful product. Users don't seem to pay much attention to this, which we find very strange.
It seems to be underrated.
ChatPDF new domain name:
https://chatpdf.website/
"look at your competitors much less." - stay focused, but still pay attention to their marketing methods
You're not ChatPDF.com which is what people recognize when you say ChatPDF*
The REAL ChatPDF is currently doing very well and partnering with Jenni.ai.
So it's odd that you're calling yourself ChatPDF and using this site: https://saas-ai1.web.app/ which looks incredibly scammy. I would not sign up for this app to be fair and I don't mean any disrespect. I'm concerned that you would state that you are ChatPDF and not mention the more popular one in your thread. Even, your thread here appears like a scam with the constant keyword cramming of 'ChatPDF' when you don't own the successful dot com version or even a custom domain.
Maybe you can clarify why? I suspect some consumers have felt the same as me.
ChatPDF new domain name:
https://chatpdf.website/
This has to do with how ChatPDF was previously deployed. Due to the integration of many features, the installation package of ChatPDF is very large, dozens of gigabytes in size. We encountered some problems with incremental updates because we had to delete the server and rebuild it. Moreover, our update frequency was very high (once every 1 to 3 days), which caused problems with the proprietary domain name corresponding to ChatPDF.
However, we recently solved this problem.
Interesting. That’s what I thought when I looked at the website. I got a login prompt too. I think you need to show a demo of your product.
It looks like you aren't spending a lot of effort on marketing.
You might think about creating a dedicated '.com' marketing page to direct potential users towards. Then run ads on facebook/twitter/tiktok/etc.
In general, if you want rapid growth, you should be spending as much money as possible (50-100% of revenue) on marketing for the first year of business.
dude, your primary competitor was YC backed and had a 70, a month MRR business before he purchased pdf.ai. He used his cash to market the product.
He paid $20k to an influencer on Tik Tok that got him a bunch of virality.
He probably pays for ads and other influencers on other platforms.
This is a distribution issue, focus on marketing what you've already built.
Hi, as far as I see you don't have a dedicated website? The chrome link redirects to a subdomain of web . App, and there you find several products. Also I couldn't find any pricing for chatpdf.
As @BuilderMarketer said maybe try to spend much more time on marketing, and ideally start with a proper website.
Just my two cents, good luck!
ChatPDF new domain name:
https://chatpdf.website/
thank you!
Subscription options are on the chatpdf website page.
https://askdocs.azurewebsites.net/
It seems you are caught in "the build trap" (read the book). Sounds like you are focused on features and not on product/users/growth.
Here are my more specific thoughts (without reviewing both products):
You mentioned something about bugs - do you monitor users' satisfaction with your product? Are you finding and fixing those bugs quickly? How likely it is for a user to encounter a bug that will discourage him/her from using the product?..
Metrics: which usage metrics do you monitor? Churn/retention? Daily users?
Read about "aarrr" metrics.
Marketing: how much of your time do you invest in telling the world about your product?
If your product is ready for users, you should invest more than 50% of your time and resources to get new users consistently.
If you don't know how to do it, go to GrowthMentor and find help there.
Testing: are you testing (a/b splits) the important things? Pricing page, sign up page etc?
Every important step in your funnel should be optimized all the time, read a little about it before you jump in and create too many or the wrong tests.
Hope it helps :)
Feel free to DM me if you need more help.
Thank you, our team and I are working at a legal AI product. I would like to invite you to try out and give some suggestions if possible.
Thank you, our resources are very limited, we will do our best to do some website analysis work.
Although we had some charts on our server, we struggled to find useful insights.
I don't think saying 4k users is a failure is true... You did well!
PDF. ai are extremely good at marketing and this is just the way it works... you cna have the best tool ever, the one with better marketing will always win.
You should maybe consider pivoting to a niche they are not targeting and in which you would shine.
Maybe a category of PDF?
Good luck! :)
How much traffic you are getting from search engines?
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.