How to win in the app economy on a bootstrap budget

Photo credit: Eko Susanto.

Here’s how to think about the maturity of an app economy.

In stage one, app usage is tethered to how fast people are upgrading their old phones to smartphones.

“If the install base of mobile devices is growing, what tends to happen is downloads go through the roof. In Indonesia, downloads doubled over the past two years. It’s the number six country in terms of downloads, globally,” says Danielle Levitas, who heads research and marketing at app analytics company App Annie.

In Indonesia, the upgrade to smartphones is now in full swing. According to Danielle, the country is still in the early stage of the app economy, but tipping over to phase two.

“Next, consumers start developing habits, they settle on which games they like, which shopping and ride-sharing apps.” This is when time spent in-app becomes more relevant. “In Indonesia, time spent in apps grew by about 85 percent last year,” Danielle says. “Globally it grew faster.”

In stage three it’s all about monetization. Markets like China are the largest.

Here it’s still early, greenfield opportunity – which means it’s a good time for local players to get in position to become leaders in certain app categories.

The categories that are popular – like messaging, shopping, travel, or transport – are pretty much the same across the globe, Danielle says, interviewed today by Tech in Asia’s Nivedita Bhattacharjee at TIA Jakarta 2016.

It’s within these categories that you see local flavor and jockeying for top positions. In Indonesia, messaging apps BBM and Line are bigger than in most western countries, but Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger are also popular. In the transport category, Go-Jek and Grab are ahead of Uber, which means Indonesians favor their local and regional heros and see more value in them.

App Annie’s Danielle Levitas.

How to bootstrap an app marketing strategy

But how do you get on people’s smartphones in the first place? It all depends on how much cash you have. “If you are well funded, you can drive paid marketing, rise in the ranks, and then you can get to organic users from there,” Danielle explains.

Bootstrapped startups have a fighting chance if they play their cards right.

Good UX is everything

Know your KPIs and build models

Apps are here to stay