Born elephant - How Mobile Apps companies born global?
An elephant and dog became pregnant at same time. Three months down the line the dog gave birth to six puppies. Six months later the dog was pregnant again, and nine months on it gave birth to another dozen puppies. The pattern continued. On the eighteenth month the dog approached the elephant questioning, "Are you sure that you are pregnant? We became pregnant on the same date, I have given birth three times to a dozen puppies and they are now grown to become big dogs, yet you are still pregnant. Whats going on?". The elephant replied, "There is something I want you to understand. What I am carrying is not a puppy but an elephant. I only give birth to one in two years. When my baby hits the ground, the earth feels it. When my baby crosses the road, human beings stop and watch in admiration, what I carry draws attention. So what I'm carrying is mighty and great.". Don't lose faith when you see others receive answers to their prayers. Don't be envious of others testimony. If you haven't received your own blessings, don't despair. Say to yourself "My time is coming, and when it hits the surface of the earth, people shall yield in admiration."
That is inspiring story for essence of how things different at born time , Today I’m discussing same essence for Mobile App companies.
A typical smartphone user looks at their phone about 150 times per day!
With above statistics it clearly indicates that user interest shifted gradually from PC internet focus to mobile focus , with number of mobile apps exceed number of human beings 7 billion devices, mobile apps made every service provided being personalised and delivered directly to named customer with total business of $25 billions in 2013 increased to $45 billions in 2015 billion , isn’t it big number? Definitely it’s eyebrow raising and deserver attention from classic IT industry entrepreneurs .
Mobile downloads total business increased from $25 billions in 2013 to $45 billions in 2015 billion
It was not common to hear before about organisation turn in billions of dollar before having long years in business with gradual yearly growth and constant expansion until recent years kicked by Facebook that crossed the $100 billion on the IPO 2012 and Instagram - founded by Kevin System and having 13 people staff - for just one year before sold in $1 billion , Whatsapp for $19 billion and recently Linkedin for $26 billions. , Examples are many but actually the point I discuss is how such organisation differed in essence from other hundreds of every day mobile App start-ups that end up on same level of business standard CAGR rate that take them decades to get through the billion dollar size:
Although even the founders didn’t financially plan to have such companies as billion dollar it was growing in such rates that made the billions dollar value in extremely short time. I summarised sum main factors that must be in the DNA of such start-ups to increase the chance of being one of this billion dollar group :
1. Strategy : Build the “perceived value” that attract “Larger customer volume”
In fact , there are many approaches to app business model that can attract bigger revenue. Beginning with the end in mind makes huge difference.
There are five main business model for getting dollars from mobile Apps
A. Gaming : Where users pay for virtual service ; example CandyCrush
B. E-Commerce : Where users pay for actual service : example Pages , Numbers , Dayone , Uber
C. Advertising : Getting user Crowd and selling in-App Ads.
D. SaaS :Software As A Service example : Salesforce
E. Enterprise : for large software downloads , Autocad
Case 1 : Uber started for filling the gap that users need to have Car drop Wherever they are , this kind of business gap is growing with the fuel of needs and spread due to absence of other service provider. Using gap as need is great kick-start and this was linked with great operation -you will read below -however many new service providers hacked the idea and even offering it either better - like Sidecar chose your own driver and Car pool - or they make it more localised as Careem , Smart Taxi
So using the “Billion Dollar Idea” can be just “too good to be found” and if found , you will enjoy it for years until you get intruders.
Case 2: Instagram , I always think that interface plays major role in app results. Not that just how sexy App it looks , I refer to the main page , how you welcome your users. Google succeed by being so simple and offering just bar for search that even computer illiterate can type whats in their mind and get tons of results without needs to dig links like Yahoo who was overwhelmed with mails and directories and even user profiles. This direct us to facebook , I recall that Yahoo was having profile page called Yahoo 360 that was exactly same idea like facebook , you build profile , photo -or avatar - and connect with friends , it was also having yahoo groups that was like facebook pages and email groups and admins. Not all of us still use this now. So what made Yahoo fails relatively to Facebook. Facebook just welcome users with their profiles not with the emails interface and news pages and communities …etc . It was just simple enough to register user profile and link it. During this time users were very reluctant to put photos online for public. In short , think what the centre of your function and welcome user with it , make it simple interface to attract simple people.
"Think what the centre of your function and welcome user with it , make it simple interface to attract simple people"
Case 3: Whatsapp , The nice thing about whatsapp it is free , the reason mentioned so far how they make revenue even not -personally - convincing. However they had the large number of user base that made the company valued higher than lot of other business apps generating much more revenues. The approach is similar to facebook about having main App function free to connect friends and beside build revenues from Ads. So We should look from customer “Perceived value” rather than “Proposed Value” , if it will go as low as Zero and you win a “customer attention first time and return” and his “word of mouth” to next customer , this will be more than enough to do viral self marketing and hence more users and more investors attention , shortest rocket ride to billions.
2. Resources *
Get surrounded by right resources , basically four types of resources should be there:
a. Entrepreneurs : Founder , co-founders and other dream team in whose DNA is do or die and can achieve results as team and individuals. Preferably team worked together before in similar projects or having common interest of growth with same dream and values. They should make sure the bond is not breakable when waves take them high and low.
b. Producers : They are people doing product ,sell it and answer customer questions. Hire best technical team who are able to achieve best App design with simplicity as principal. They don’t need be highly paid rather artistic approach to the app design and smart navigation for functional purpose.
c. Administrator : They are the builders and operation people who get operations smoothly running. In fact , i see this as main success factor to make or break the App.
d. Integrators: They are the emotional centre that makes sure that everyone gets along especially in high stress and pressure
3. Operation : We normally focus in revenue model , technical architecture , design , logo , marketing and forget the operation team. Hailo App was designed by Taxi driver who was in board to know exactly what is day-to-day needs and wants. You don’t need to be more on technical side , you should be oriented to the App industry you are providing the service to. Uber has great operation to run the app business , Support calls , Training drivers , standards for Cars , legalisation of business in different countries , you see it is not just App , it is lot more how you function it.
4. Marketing :
Branding is the secret sauce of global App companies , they have professional trendy logo , attractive meaningful identity and creative branding strategy. In fact this kind of skills better be outsourced to creative agency and there lot of smart digital agencies that can deliver complete App branding , SEO , SMM as integrated activity.
5. Integrated vision : “Think Big” , Outside politics , this is what Donald Trump made it as message to many people in Trump books and University. If you are going to do it anyway , do it on bigger scale , Hire best lawyers , Best Operation, Best Assistant , best sales , get best channels , best alliances. This is the only way to get it to best customer. Will this contradict with startup “Bootstrap” for cost cutting. In fact the focus to raise fund should go always in parallel. For every stage of product growth and users increase , get more circle of investors who are interested to be part of the future success , the more idea is appealing , proven and showing signs of great success , no IT investor can ignore it and turn to stock market.
Above is not full rehearsed details , it is my point of view what makes companies different at first years of business , the mobile App business is evolving every day and the growth of such technology platform transformed lot of business focus from B2B to B2C combined with IOT (internet of things) that made software houses shift from Enterprise Applications building to User oriented service segmented , personalised and targeted. Having said that , If you have the right idea , don't wait ,think of the needs , sketch it , get co-foudners and hit the road before someone does.
Enjoy your weekend!
-Adel Eid Yousef