5
1 Comment

Do mobile apps still make money?

I work in the mobile app industry and the developers I've spoken to say it's extremely difficult to have a successful indie app on the App Store/Google Playstore these days without being backed by a major company.

If you or know someone who has launched a successful mobile app, would you be so kind and share your experience? I've been debating if I should launch my app but always get scared by the negatives.

Thank you

  1. 7

    The App Store economics are broken for a long time. Apps became a digital good for the price of almost nothing. Showing your value and converting users for payment is pretty tough. Upfront charging is almost dead which means that the only options in terms of monetization are in-app purchases or subscriptions.

    If you think about ads beware of the trade-offs your UX will decrease and you‘ll need a lot of users. And I really mean a lot.

    Currently, the most successful Apps are made for the masses which means either in terms of communication or games. Both rely heavily on paid customer acquisition which

    I highly suggest you follow David Smith and Marco Arment both a pretty successful Indie Developers who found their market. I took them for a long time.

    If you have any further questions in terms of apps feel free to contact me through IH or Twitter @DennisKluge_ . I was able to collect a lot of insights during the work at my agency.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments