We continue our rotating Startupbootcamp blog series - our ten teams take turns sharing their thoughts and experiences. This entry is by Juan Moreno of Mini App Stores.
An app explosion
Worldwide
demand for mobile
applications is set to explode in the next three years as the total value
of the market could grow to $17.5 billion (according to a report commissioned by GetJar). This would mean that the value of
apps sold would be greater than the value of CDs sold in 2012 ($13.83bn).
Morgan
Stanley analyst Mary Meeker called 2012 an “inflection point” for
mobile advertising.
If there’s
a single reason for the mass-entrance of apps into the mobile market, it is app
stores.
We view app stores as direct
developer-to-consumer channels that have
sped up time-to-market for applications, a route that was previously laden with
obstacles, such as lack of information, complex submission and certification
processes, low revenue shares and regional fragmentation.
Publishers using regular mobile
advertising have hit an advertising revenue frontier on mobile apps. Why? Basically because, according to
Steve Jobs, “Mobile advertising sucks”.
It’s true, user’s learning curve has hit a point where they find most
ads irrelevant, clicking to see what’s next is not new anymore, hence click
through rates are falling.
A potential solution
We’ve
been working to solve this problem and have created what we think is a great
alternative: Mini
App Stores.
The idea is to integrate a “Mini App Store Component” in
your application which allows you to show references of other
applications. Your app will
look like this (note the bar at the top):
The process is simple:
- Install the “Mini App
Store Component” in your app
- Advertise other
applications within your app
- Done! Whenever a person
downloads an application referred to in your app, you earn money.
Mini App Stores owners (apps that have installed the
Mini App Store component) gain more money and extend their revenue frontier
through:
- Recommendations:
Apps you refer via your app are actually recommended apps based on the user’s
interests (purchases) – just as Amazon recommends books based on your previous
purchases.
- User-Experience:
The user browses apps with the next and back button (swipe is coming) from a
set of evolving apps recommended for the user. Watch the video demo. This
significantly improves the user experience; leading to more downloads, and
increase revenue. So far users are telling us they see it as part of the app ;).
Recently we got the great news that we were admitted
to join
Startupbootcamp, and here we are in Copenhagen, straight from Argentina. The
program has exceeded our expectations; you can read our blog
post about it. We’ve been getting some feedback from the mentors in regards
to our brand name, Mini App Stores. What do you think? We think there are so
many app-something names out there that our name recognition may suffer. Please
share your thoughts.
We’re also interested in engaging with app
publishers. We’re app developers
ourselves and love to talk to geeks and startup fanatics. (Juan can be reached at juan@miniappstores.com).
Greetings to all and see you in the next post.
The Mini App Stores Team
www.miniappstores.com