Reducing the barrier of entry to AppStore and Google PlayStore
Zagl m-commerce platform is all about making mobile apps accessible by cutting down the complexities of app publishing

Characteristic of a democratised product:
This post is about the huge barrier of entry to AppStore and Google Play. Basically if you’re looking for a software or a service, there are a few things that determines how difficult it is for you to have access to the product.
Usually for a product or service that’s been democratised, there is always a default player, it’s takes little of no effort for the consumer and the price is close to nothing — if not free
Blogger democratised blogging:
For example before Blogger, people who wanted to have a blog need to host a CMS like Drupal, Joomla or Wordpress be able to publish content. When Blogger was launched it totally changed the equation and it brought in a whole new wave of writers because it dramatically reduced the barrier of entry into the blogosphere.
Youtube democratised video hosting:
Before YouTube, people who wanted to host video content need to have some kind of video streaming server and in spite of that these self hosted videos were not really streaming very well. When YouTube was launched, it dramatically reduced the barrier of entry for video publishers and consequently brought in a whole new wave of video makers and video content.
Medium democratised magazines:
A similar revolution is happening on medium.com, which made creating and running online publications a piece of cake. A lot of independent magazines are being run totally of medium.com, without spending a fortune on the infrastructure. In fact the movement has been so successful that even established houses are choosing to post their publications on Medium.
Empowering newcomers
These are just a few examples that I cherry picked to drive the point that whenever barrier of entry is reduced, the product or service is no longer exclusive to the elite and this shift in ecosystem attracts a whole range of potential consumers.
A huge byproduct of this shift is that it often ends up empowering the newcomers
For example, a lot of independent journalists run a fully fledged news channel on YouTube, which has historically been reserved only for the most influential media companies.
Mobile Apps are not democratised yet:
I would like to highlight a barrier to entry that exist for business to be listed on the AppStore or Google Play.
We all know that consumers are increasing increasingly spending their time on mobile and successful ecommerce businesses definitely need to have a strong mobile presence in order to be accessible to their potential customers.
But if you look at the landscape of tools that let businesses set up store on mobile, surprisingly there is none. For example if you really want to have an e-commerce portal, you don’t have to look any further than Shopify, because it has become the default and the most popular e-commerce platform.
So for any category you choose, there is a default or the best provider, who has solved the problem so we’ll for so many people, potentially lowering the barrier of entry into the space.
But if you look at mobile commerce, no one can name a global leader or the default platform which enables businesses to create mobile apps
I think part of the reason why that hasn’t been any obvious winner in the mobile commerce space has to do with the complexities involved in building and maintaining a mobile app itself. This problem demands innovative solutions.
Mobile Apps are complicated:
If you look at the sheer number of steps that is involved in getting a business registered with the AppStore or Google Play it’s mind-blowing. This has left a lot of businesses with responsive websites for their audience on mobile. Having run a white-label mobile apps company and having listed numerous apps on the AppStore and Google Play I know how much is involved in creating and maintaining an app.
But for mobile apps to be truly democratised and be accessible for millions of small businesses, the potential solution:
- Must scale to millions of apps
- Should cut down the bureaucracies of dealing with AppStore and PlayStore
- Must be cost effective (potentially free, just like all the other solutions that we spoke about)
Zagl m-commerce platform:
As an attempt to making mobile apps accessible, we have built Zagl m-commerce platform, that let’s businesses set up there online store and enjoy the same benefits of owning their mobile app, without having to deal with the overheads involved in publishing on AppStore and Google Play.
We believe that this is truly about reducing the barrier of entry and making mobile apps accessible for all. If you are an e-commerce business and if you are looking to list yourself on the AppStore or Google Play, check out Zagl today.
Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash

