Email Address: contact@softwareistic.com | Phone Number: (844) 970-3900
Email Address: contact@softwareistic.com | Phone Number: (844) 970-3900
There are around 96% and 92% free applications on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, respectively. If these applications are all free to download, how is this business model sustainable, one might ask. A free application is not altruistic, and there are various strategies by which free-to-download apps can make money.
Not all of these are efficient for each type of application, so be aware of them all to find the right fit for your use case.
One of the most convenient and commonly used methods of monetizing your application is to display ads on it. It’s the primary method for free apps to make money. Each time an ad is displayed, clicked on, or installed using the ad, you generate some form of revenue. While advertising seems relatively straightforward and almost like easy money, the challenge lies in presenting ads that your users actually want to see.
You’ll have to carefully pick advertisements that your users and interested in, so they’re more likely to click on them and use the services you show them.
The following strategy that many competent applications are using includes in-app purchases. The base application itself will be free to use, but there are certain aspects that you will have to pay for to obtain. You could access specific characters, skins, power-ups, and other loot only through specific purchases for mobile games.
These are mainly related to microtransactions and also include limited-time events where the customer can get loot at discounted rates, which can further incentivize purchases.
Many applications collect data from their users, including usage patterns, social media handles, and other preferences. This data can be sold to researchers and marketing companies for large sums, which helps them create targeted ad campaigns. Many major companies use this technique, with free VPN companies at the front of the helm for collecting and selling data.
The developer provides an application for free, but they allow some features on the application to be available upon payment or subscription. These include specific features and remove limits from certain settings, incentivizing the user to pay for them. For example, you can use the application X number of times a day until 24 hours pass, but you can bypass this feature by subscribing or paying for unlimited daily usage.
When you’re confident that a user will be willing to pay for a specific feature, in-app purchases offer great revenue options.
Combined together, the Play Store and App Store have more than 5.7 million applications, with many of them providing sustainable means with the help of the aforementioned strategies. With billions of users having smartphones now, it’s still a market that can be taken on by storm with the right product and service that’s targeted properly towards the audience.