229K Daily Active Users
by zeiteisenI should be super happy to reach so many users. But I'm not. So many users causes many problems. We have some users that abuse the app. We get a lot feature requests from the users. Many bugs appears. And on top of all of that the server costs explodes. One day is now so expensive as the whole last month and still no revenue.
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I checked you guys are holding the #78 spot in Social Networking category, and have excellent reviews.
Frankly, your situation is a bit absurd. So much work well done already and there is very decent traction.
What kind of ways have you tried out to make revenue?
For monetization I'd explore things like:
- Simple games where the loser pays, or both players buy some tokens (virtual beers)
- Ads, which I'm sure you've considered. But perhaps in some clever way. Like give vouchers/offers of local restaurants to people who "score" (drink) a lot. Those people are confirmed to buy lots of beverages so it could be profitable for the restaurants. Plus they're social so they attract others to drink with them
- If you don't want ads inside your app, send them as push notifications. Just make sure they're relevant to your user group, and send them rarely (once a day max)
How are people abusing your app?
Honestly, what you do seems interesting and I'm up for helping if you need. I'm sure you could easily find others too. What's the tech you're using server-side, maybe there's significant room for optimization now that you know how your traffic looks like?
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Thanks for the input. There is a feature that suggest friends. Some users send with that feature thousands friend requests even though they don't know them. Thats annoying for the other users. And the app can't handle so many friends. The result is a freezing app.
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Yeah I saw people complaining exactly about that in the app reviews. But it sounds like a fairly easily solvable problem.
As for the revenue model, I seriously hope you're able to put something together soon. You've come so far so I think there's lots of potential to make decent income from this.
Good luck!
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I just added some limits to the feature. For example: Users can now opt out as suggested friend
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Or bet yet, Learn from LinkedIn and limit the number of friend requests you can send per 10 minutes.
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If the number of friend requests per user is a problem, you could add a maximum limit for outstanding friend requests. Once somebody has sent 100 friend requests (or whatever limit makes sense in your case), they can't send anymore for some period of time.
Seems like users opting out of the suggested friends list would just change who got the requests, not actually decrease the number of requests sent.
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Hey,
Why you don't use Ads?
Maybe it's a stupid question, it will ruin your UX, but I mean with 229k (!!!) users daily you can make some decent revenues! -
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Hey man. Congratulations on your milestone. I'm sure you'd be able to find a way to monetize soon.
Just a quick question though, what's the bill (approximately) per day/per month of the backend hosting you're getting in that number of users ?
Would be awesome if you can tell what cloud service are you using.
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Congratulations!! It looks like you need to expand your team and find that revenue angle
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That is some great traction! It sounds like you could use some Firebase DB optimization, check out this thread: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/free-firebase-product-audit-cb0deb7275
If you wanna make quick wins, runfirebase database:profileon your computer for 30ish minutes and see where most of the costs come from. This already helped us lower our costs by 80% -
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Whats your tech stack? ios UIKIT or SwiftUI and is it all firebase?
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The easy No brainer way on how you can make money:
- Add ads
- Charge for an ad-free version
Or go like couchsurfing and charge a yearly fee like 25USD to verify users. Verified users will have a "green tick" next to their name/profile.
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Congrats on your active users! We help companies scale their backend systems. Send me a email and we can set up a meeting [email protected]
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Are you using Firebase as your server?
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Put affiliate links bro
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Congrats on making an amazing product and attracting users. I don't have enough datapoints but I feel you've got a lot of users who are passionate about beer. You can monetize the traffic in 2 ways:
- Build a strong tracking platform and sell advertisement spots to advertisers.
- Sell Tees. Here is a store you can model after http://lastbeerstanding.com/
I would personally go for number 2 since I would be more in control there. Let me know if you have any queries or need help with anything.
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Nice problem to have! If you’re finding it a challenge to prioritise features, bugs, or feedback I’d be happy to advise in any way. I’m a Product Manager with some free time to jump on a call. Im not looking for anything in return :)
It’s not clear how people are abusing the app, or what is causing the bulk of the cost? Sounds like you have enough to calculate the true cost per user, including acquisition, of using the app.
Have you tried mapping out the business model on a Business Model Canvas?
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@typeofgraphic hi Paul be interested in discussing a start up Opportunity with yourself. Do you have an email?
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Hey @zeiteisen, I have more than ten years experience creating high transactional system if you want to reduce cost of operations send me an email I might be able to give you a few guidelines for your Devs.
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I had that much traffic on one of my sites about 10 years ago. It was able to generate 5 figures monthly running Adsense + some affiliate commissions.
So you just have to monetize users. Start it ASAP. -
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Have you thought about selling the app? or you could try to raise money.
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You should absolutely look at going to local bars & restaurants and offering a package to them. You would need a feature on your app where users can access a coupon page for the vendor - and charge vendors for having these. Companies live and die by their repeat customers, and they will love the fact that other people are encouraging customers to come to the bar.
Concept: Joe's Bar has a coupon for Buy Two Beers Get 25% Off. Sally goes to Joe's Bar and her friend Bill sees her there using Beer Buddy. He also sees he can get 25% off the tab when he buys him and his friend a beer.
Joe's bar is happy because they get brand loyalty.
Sally & Bill are happy because they got a discount on two of the ten beers they drank that night.Good luck - it will fall into place soon!
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That would be super cool to have a feature like that. But it's hard to do. Each vendor needs to agree on the deal. How to reach each vendor. They need to be convinced to use it. Many phone calls needed and even visits. All around the world.
It needs a voucher system.
A lot of work in the marketing and tech. I put that idea on my list and maybe some day...
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The traction is amazing. Congratulations.
I see through comments on the Play Store & IH that you are getting too many feature requests.
I think you should focus only on those features which help you in increasing stickiness, performance, and virality of the app.
If you are working alone, I would love to work along with you for product management, strategy and revenue generation.
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I would love to help you monetize your app. I worked for some ad companies and could share some insights.
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For which app is this? Beer Buddy?... man that’s A LOT OF ACTIVE users wowww 🤩
How are they abusing it? How are you dealing with the feature requests
too bad about the costs, is it earning money?
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Can you add features like split bill features?
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A fully featured split bill feature would be awesome. To make the complete payment in the app and take a little share of the transaction.
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Have you considered partnering up with brands? With such a considerable amount of users, this is a great opportunity for hand-picked promotion.
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This would be great. The users are spread in USA and Europe. It's hard to find a partner who target such a scattered audience.
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@zeiteisen I'd say reach out to beer brands. A major brand could sponsor it or even reskin it (if you wanted to sell it or offer it as a white label product), then offer discounts at participating bars and pubs or promote specific brands. So many options!
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Well done. It would be interesting to hear your back story. I had a look at your products IH page but it seems incomplete.
I am not to keen on this approach but would it not be time for some outside investment, you clearly have decent traction.
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I've made many apps, mostly as full-time employee. Some private ones. But none of them got any attention. The best one was a password management app for Wifi passwords. It was before 1Password or Lastpass were available. Sometimes you have a great product but are not motivated enough to push it further to let it moon.
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This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
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He is the co-founder
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This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
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This comment was deleted 5 years ago.
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Great idea, I'll try to add a "Donate a beer" button for users that use the app a lot.
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