“Freemium is not what it used to be”
“How can i pay my Palo Alto rent, only with a Free app”
“It’s just too hard to make money today”
“App Discovery just sucks. Appsfire, Please do something!..”
Those are some private quotes we’ve been collecting from App Developers for the past 3 years. Developers need a better solution to make money. It’s not just enough to get users. Someone need to pay for the bills too.
It is well known that getting users today is quite easy. All you have to do is pay, ask Apple kindly, or hire a bot farm in China. But that is solving only one part of the equation: User traction.
How do you really make money out of a free app? Cause let’s remember most downloaded apps are by far Free apps.
Appsfire has been working on reinventing app discovery for the past three years. And today we’re introducing a solution to finally solve the problem of monetization for free apps.
And we call it “App for Cash“
The basic idea is simple. Appsfire is aggressively and obsessively negotiating with all the top developers of Free apps. Every day we will propose wide selection of great Free apps but at a reasonable higher Price.
Why would a user want Free apps for a paid price? A few great reasons
1. You support the developer of the app you love so much (well, in theory)
2. no more crappy ads for apps showing up already in the top 10 ranks, every one has downloaded twice by mistake
3. No more funky invite system and reminder to open an app, you have no idea in which folder it is stuck.
4. you’ll get a wonderful “thank you” card send to you by Fedex or regular mail based on the country (for certain countries, we’ll have to use fax or telegram)
5. 10% of the revenues will be paid to the UDA (unemployed Developer association) to sustain the ecosystem
So many great reasons. Imagine for a second
Temple Run for $4.99! SnapChat for $9.99!
So what will the app look like?
Very much like the current Appsfire (Screenshot above) which highlight the best deals But with unique breakthrough features
1. Price up alert: track any free app, the moment it become paid > you get notified
2. Price filter: Filter for only 1.99, 2.99, 3.99 and more for users willing to spend particularly a lot
3. Fake activity: we will highlight so called “Paid apps” which, most of the time are free but get paid from time to time to give the illusion they are “great paid apps”
4. Price Cheater” We will highlight and filter apps that are Free with in-app purchase but decide to abandon the in app purchase to become Paid only. To get in App for Cash you need to be a real FREE app first. No tricks
5. Worst deals ever: find the apps that did not raise their price enough.
6. A negative notification system: if we notice you do no spend enough on App for Cash, we’ll send you negative notifications (this is the -1 you see on top) that will possibly destroy your App for Cash account if you do not take actions.
7. Every day we’ll add an crazy funny joke to the highlight of the day. Why? because if you have to spend $10 on a app, it’d be better funny. Ah?
The Cherry on Pie
Because Apple does not seem to be very worried with incentivized downloads, we have built a unique program. We call it “Cash for Cash”. Users will actually get paid to download paid apps. Obviously we won’t be able to pay you 100% of the value of the App. So instead you’ll get a special “virtual cash” each time you buy a paid app.
What is this Virtual Cash good for? You can convert it in Bitcoins each time you reach our “Fortnox spend level”. We don’t have all the details nailed yet, but don’t worry - it will be well worth it
A healthy Ecosystem
No more race for top ranks (because really? who cares?) , No more unpaid bills at your favorite Coffee chain, No more dirty tricks to get money.
What the App Discovery industry need is a new standard. A new way. A new Path (by the way, we’ll try get Path “Paid” before they decide to do it themselves)
Apple will surely welcome such a counter intuitive initiatve
We love it. (Nearly) All our team was behind this project.
We can’t wait to see how this will change our industry.
We’re submitting the app in the coming days. We planned a special announced on Money Magazine, once it’s live
