Today’s app market is so competitive that much like Olympic athlete’s developers around the globe are struggling to beat the competition, gain exposure, and get “gold” from their apps. With the 2016 Olympics currently taking place we decided to show you 3 things the Olympics and the app business have in common.
Ready – get set – Go!
Nothing like a little bit of Competition
If you think about it, the app business is exactly like the Olympics except the main event doesn’t happen every four years it’s a year-round, daily competition that requires constant maintenance, hard work, blood sweat and tears. The strong survive and the weak are forgotten.
Olympic athletes and app developers share similar pains. They both work/train hard and compete against hundreds (thousands in the developer’s case) of rivals for a chance of fame, prestige, exposure, and money. Each month more and more new apps are submitted to the App Store and Google Play. According to pocketgamer.biz the App Store kept busy in July with around 2,483 new app submissions a day while Google Play submissions reached approximatly 1,800. In reality, only few athletes make the cut and few apps get featured on the App store/Google Play “Podium”.
“If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard.”
– Jesse Owens (American Athlete, 4 time Gold Medalist in Track and Field at the 1936 Olympic Games, 1913-1980)
Like the Olympic games the app business is cutthroat. If your app isn’t fast enough, fun enough, smart enough, or free enough, it ain’t gonna blow the competition away.. Users have too many options and not too much loyalty. If you want to have a shot in today’s frantic app jungle and get users to install or engage with your app, use all the resources you have (and don’t have) to take your app from a fun home project to a gold medal winner.
What’s the game plan?
Its’ tough competing against the best the world has to offer. Regardless of who you are, an athlete or a developer you won’t make it if you rely solely on raw talent or the awesomeness of your app.
You don’t show up to the Olympics without training hard, studying your opponents, and creating a course of action just like you don’t launch a new app without investing in relevant traffic sources, as well tracking and measurement tools and expect to be an App store front runner. Both Olympic teams and developers need a solid Game Plan for a chance to win.
Having a solid strategy makes all the difference when it comes to successful apps and the ones that are chewed up and spit out into the horrific uninstalled section of your users mobile. The goal is to make history not be history and for that you need to think strategically.
Strategy is key for success. You may want to be the best sprinter in the world or the leading app in your genre but it won’t make a difference if you don’t implement methods that back up your goals.
Go in for the win
With great challenges come great opportunities and by opportunities I mean MONEY. Working hard pays off. Play hardball and you will make it to the top with gold, silver, clicks, installs or however else you want to call revenue. Olympic medalists receive cash prizes depending on the type of medal (bronze, silver, gold) or sponsorships from major brands like Nike, Adidas etc. Though payoffs for developers aren’t always as glamorous as shoe and cornflake commercials,an amazing app can generate a huge income.
Take Pokémon Go on for example, did you know that app made approximately $268 Million from in app purchases and advertising within the first few weeks of its launch?
Mobile Strike makes $8.84 Million a month on Google Play, $8.8M coming from in-app purchases and $44K from advertising. While you take a few seconds to recover from these obscene numbers remember that these are top performing apps worldwide.
If you’re the best in your field, opportunities for exposure and money will present themselves. Know how to grab them and leverage them for your success.
Finish Line
As you watch the divers, gymnasts, cyclists and other athlete’s fight for the win on screen remember that the app business is not that much different. The competition is great and only few triumph. In today’s technologically consumed world it may prove more beneficial to try for the top grossing app rather than a gold medal.
Comments are closed.