One of the most viewed surfaces in the world is your phone screen. Obviously, this makes it a great advertising medium. Now, many of us find these ads annoying but there’s a small group of mobile phone users and app manufacturers — who look at this as a great way to make money.
This is the reach of an App called — Flikk. It has gone from 0 to 1.5% in the last 5 months.
Flikk, basically replaces your lock screen with an advertisement. One that you get paid for each time you open it. You get extra points (money) for referring friends who download the app.
Quick Note: When we look at a competitive set for any company, we try to examine products that don’t necessarily have the same business model but also serve the same purpose /fight for the same mind share for the customer. These are the apps that ‘flikk’ competes with for share of mind and share of ‘purpose’.
None of this is new, some would even say it’s quite obvious. But despite the sheer fecundity of the idea — people continue to use these apps.
This leads me to a few possible conclusions:
- New users are always entering the mobile ecosystem so there will be demand for the foreseeable future.
- Each wave of newcomers is excited at the possibility of earning some money for basically doing nothing.
- This is an easy space to enter, there is organic demand but it’s also crowded. No App is breaking out of its cohort at such a velocity as to make the space very compelling.
- The type of user who downloads these apps is no one’s customer. If you’re the kind of customer who downloads an app for Rs. 10 or refers a friend for Rs. 5 then are you a customer worth chasing? You can always be lured away (& acquired again) by discounts and have no brand loyalty.
The traditional wisdom has been that you can build a larger business with this basic demand in place. What this audience will give you is a small but skewed seeding ground for a bigger/ better product play. Like recharge apps they enjoy organic demand and like recharge apps there is a potential to turn that demand in to a larger play.
But build what? Pivot in to what? We are yet to see any of these business turn potential into opportunity. Free Charge is thus far the only company to have made that pivot with some success. And for all the time and energy spent on conversations and blogs about pivoting, it’s amply evident that pivoting a business (even a startup) is extremely hard to pivot.
Another larger point worth thinking about is the future of telecom/ call tariffs and mobile plans. One thing is abundantly clear. We are the product. What we do/ where we do it/ our buying patterns/ tastes and preferences — these are the corner stones to a digital future. I won’t be surprised if we all start getting mobile connections free in exchange for advertising or some derivative thereof.
Why should Telco’s be left to make money from data and call charges while Facebook & Google mint billions through ad networks? Won’t they want to join the party?
Thanks for your time,
Ashish
- Team KG
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You can reach me on ashish@kalagato.com
