Would you continue working on a dying technology niche product even if it's making $10k/month?

$10k/mo, AKA $120k a year? That sounds like a great spot to be in, lol.

Wasn't SMS dying four years ago already (even in US?)…

It's quite impossible to say, with more info, if you need to improve upon it. But based on given info a low number of people really get value out of it? Also I don't know the market well enough to see where it's going.
I am currently in sort of the same boat (although not a dying tech, but the product is considered more of just a feature—as such it's integrated in other products). I recently launched something new, that I now consider my main business.
I had two options: build more tools around that feature-product to make it not just a feature (but a set of tools), or build something new (which I opted for).
I leave the other business in 'maintenance mode' and don't do any marketing for it.

That sounds like a great problem to have haha. You can try work on new SaaS while it brings in money.

SMS isn't dying. SMS and OTT (over-the-top) services (like sending messages over IP) are separated markets, and physical networks are larger (and still growing).

Some telcom are constantly investing more in their physical networks because it brings them the most value. OTT services are secondary to them. They're even investing to deliver OTT services (e.g. enriched messaging) via traditional networks (so without using mobile data).

When I talked to a manager of Alibaba (or Tencent, I always confuse the two) about SMS/OTT, he laughed when he noticed I valued OTT more than physical. In their industry, it's the opposite.

Is there some reason that your product wouldn't work in some form with WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger? You have enough income to pay someone to create apps for you.

Squeeze all the profits while you can. With dying technology, the general management idea is to decrease quality and costs to generate as much profit as you still can. For example, in the news paper industry , it is generally accepted being a dying industry. Many newspaper owners have started to cut funding, layoffs in the department and increasing ads. This essentially decreases the quality of the paper, but the profit is usually affected or in some cases increases. This is also not dubbed ethical.

Therefore, as you have a solo business(assuming). Figure out a way to squeeze as much profits you can. Typed on phone. Ignore grammatical errors.

I'm working as Head of Software Production for a company which produce SaaS/PaaS for Telcos, for SMS/MNP/HLR.
I agree with you, that P2P SMS traffic is going down with the time, but A2P SMS is continuous growing. Main reason is, that any phone out there has SMS capability. Telcos try to go with RCS (pushed from Google) to substitute SMS in future, but I don't think that this will happen.
So answering your question... If your app is P2P oriented, take the ride as long it works, imho more 4-5 years for sure. Meantime think in something related, using other messaging channels.
Personally I start now with a new project/startup, which is omni channel messaging, which is by nature independent of "messaging channel trends".

I wouldn't stop maintaining that product until you can't profit from it any longer.

I'd say it's worth looking for markets that have more reliance on SMS and start to target those. Sounds like your app is B2C, could it be tailored for the B2B market?

If you're making 10K/month and people are willing to pay up front it means you're solving a real problem. The question is, why are they leaving? I would go figure that out (have a one on one chat with your users) and tweak the product to align it better with the feedback. Having revenue gives you the opportunity to run a few experiments. My guess is that you have a good core product that just needs to be adapted to the new reality of SMS decline.

I recommend studying blockbuster case for this, it's a good reality check for "dying technology".

Without more context, if you are convinced that it is "dying", you could:
a) make a pivot and offer whatever the "new" technology is in the niche to your customers
b) try selling it?
c) ride the wave until it dies out and at the same time start something on the side.

I would appreciate if you could share how do you acquire customers with such a high churn and still have viable economics? Getting people from US/Canada to install your app is rather expensive via ads.

Sell it or keep working on it part-time while you take a part-time or full-time job.

If there are 50 million potential customers in this niche, and the niche is dying by reducing by 2% of that number annually, then you still have a vast amount of users to promote to.
The situation of fading innovative competition in the highly saturated, slowly decreasing or stagnating area was used by many innovative startups to become powerhouses.
You can use the frustration of the SMS users against the companies that caused it and grow at their cost.
For example Robin Hood - a trading platform that entered the market with innovative and better product. It is easy to use - even for regular users - they took a huge slice in the market and are growing at crazy rates in the market that was highly saturated, by offering better, more user-friendly product, that does not confuse or make people angry.
People are leaving SMS often because they have a terrible experience with it and are frustrated - fix that and you will be able to catch a massive amount of those users.

I'm not sure sms is dying. You may know more than me on this, but if you're just assuming, you should research it, because I think sms is live and well.

Hey there, we have done research in great lengths in the industry, I would be interested to bounce some ideas and see if we can help, if not we are willing to put in an offer for you
Email at italosm [@] intergo.com.cy

SMS isn't dead. Its huge and will stay huge. Look at every other market in the world. SMS runs the game.

I'd find some advisors you can lean on in other markets to get some idea on how to spread over into more popular SMS markets.

In short, I feel you might be leaving a lot on the table. 😬

What is it? There's 1 billion + people living in places with unreliable internet that makes whatsapp/others not so usable.

This comment was deleted 7 years ago

This comment was deleted 8 years ago

This comment was deleted 5 years ago

This comment was deleted 7 years ago