Paul Kemp

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Feb 25, 2017 · 4 min read

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the corporatization of the App Store.

We’ve now got these big players that are completely dominating the space.

It’s very hard for the indie developer to break in

One of the big issues is data.

Big companies can build very big data platforms. They can collect all kinds of information about you and me.

They know exactly what kinds of ads to show us

They know exactly what content to show us

They know how to personalize the experience

Indie developers just don’t have the same capabilities as the big players.

We don’t have data scientists working for us or access to the same intelligence platforms. It becomes very challenging to compete for the average person’s screen time.

What can we do?

We often like to think about the app stores as the Wild Wild West. However, it has matured. There is now more predictability in terms of the type of revenue that you can generate and App Stores are still the best way to get distribution for your software.

In fact, there has never been a better time than now for distribution in the history of software.

As a small developer startup, you can immediately get access to billions of devices by uploading your app in just a couple of places. We’ve never had this capability before as developers, as innovators, as entrepreneurs.

2016 was a record high for number of apps are being downloaded

2016 was a record high for how much time is being spent in apps

However….

2016 was a record high for number of apps being uploaded to the app stores

So, not only is the opportunity the hottest that it’s ever been, the competition is also the hottest. Everyone wants a piece of the App Stores, but it still presents a great opportunity to get services out there and generate much needed revenue for startups and indie developer.

So, how can we understand our users, engage with them and personalize their experience?

This question is the genesis of Pyze.

Pyze will

automate segmentation — the analysis piece

enable automation of engagement

then automate personalization

These are the three key things that Pyze will do.

So, getting back to the question:

How Small Startups Compete On The App Stores Against Facebook, LinkedIn and Zynga

Pyze will do a lot of the heavy lifting. For example, if you’ve got a million users, Pyze knows the best time to reach every single user of the application for maximum engagement whether it’s 2 am or 2 pm. It’s obviously different for many people depending on their own lifestyle. These types of intelligence capabilities are built in to Pyze.

Then you can set up campaigns to trigger on events. For example, say you’ve got an eCommerce app and someone’s adding an item to a cart. Now say they abandon that cart. Maybe the solution is to send them a coupon for the item. This way, we get them re-engaged and convert the user to a paying customer.

You can set up these type of automated actions with Pyze. You can do analysis to say,

“Okay, show me all the users that have high engagement in my application, but they haven’t spent a dime with me.”

Now I can take that same group of users and say

“Okay, let me reach out to those users right now.”

Pyze enables this kind of analysis in real time and across millions of users. It’s the same potential as the big players.

And finally, personalization. You can say

“Okay, I’m going to start personalizing the experience of these different user groups. Maybe my loyal users will see a different interface than my not-so-loyal users”, or “My seasoned ticket holders will see a different UI, so they can pick their VIP seats, versus people who buy discount tickets.”

You can easily start to morph the application to be very centered around each individual so that it becomes a personalized experience for everyone.

Now you’re competing with the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Zynga by having the same capabilities of engagement and retention with your app users.

To listen to this interview in full, visit The App Guy Podcast