My Love Life - How big is the market for my game?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by My Love Life, Feb 19, 2012.

  1. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    MY LOVE LIFE (our dating & intimacy tracking app)
    Due to not so stellar sales thus far (4 months) I have decided to give the app away to build up a good base (and popularity) and then set the price at $0.99 (was @ $1.99)

    How many to give away? that is the question.

    If I assume my base is 1 million (for example) then I could give away up to 900,000 and still make a break even for the app.

    So ... my question to all you experts out there is ...

    What do you think my Base market size is?
    Please download the app (iTunes Link) and give me your opinion

    THANK YOU :)
     
  2. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    #2 mr.Ugly, Feb 19, 2012
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2012
    I suppose the potential userbase is tending near zero.

    Why on earth would someone collect data on their own privacy.. How often, when and where, with whom and why..

    Do you collect data on your toilet adventures? How often, how long, how much of an "outcome", how much stink?

    Again imho this app is more than pointless.. Possibly there is one or the other gigollo out there who has 10 wimen (or men) a day and needs to keep track of them.. but in general i think this app is pretty useless for the vast mayority?!
     
  3. AlienSpace

    AlienSpace Well-Known Member

    May 28, 2010
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    No idea.

    What's your assumption based on? Did you do any market analysis to determine the user base for something like this? I cant think of many (or, any) people that need a "dating organizer". Also, even if your base is 1 million, giving away 900,000 doesnt mean you gave away to your base, just to whoever downloaded it because they saw it and it was free. Also, afterwards you'd still need to get the message out to others about your app, so you still have the same problem.. except with a bit more exposure.

    Very small, probably not enough to justify this app and the work that went into it. But, that's just my opinion.
     
  4. Sinecure Industries

    Sinecure Industries Well-Known Member

    If you're a big enough narcissist to need this app you probably still wouldn't use it
     
  5. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    Thank you for your opinions ... but very negative.

    Just looking for opinion on the size of the base ... as to an app that is needed (not many out there that fit that bill at all)
    Considering the Online dating industry is over $2B industry, I'm looking for a VERY small fraction of that.

    Anyone out there with thoughts on Base size?
     
  6. schplurg

    schplurg Well-Known Member

    #6 schplurg, Feb 19, 2012
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2012
    I watched the vid on the devs website. You can even keep track of your sex positions haha. If there is a field to enter things that your date won't or will do, that could be useful!

    Unfortunately, I can keep track of all my current women in my head (nearing zero). I notice you can post stuff to Facebook...perhaps such an app could work with the right amount of humor and Facebook sharing...something like that. Hey, I have no idea if people would be interested in a public highscore table for dating, you never know.

    Now, for guys that are into hookers, this could be especially useful (no I do not know from personal experience)! Trade info on your favorite girls...like a prostitute database. They have websites for that.

    Oops, someone beat you to it...there's an app for that:
    http://www.cultofmac.com/94671/sugar-daddies-can-now-find-nearby-prostitutes-with-new-iphone-app/

    Your app looks very well made, good luck with it.

    Edit: I think it's all in how you market it. If it were half serious and half fun...like make the sharing of info funny somehow, and market it that way, then maybe. You can sell almost anything on the app store if it's marketed correctly.
     
  7. TouchDeveloper

    TouchDeveloper Active Member

    Feb 19, 2012
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    The main thing to remember in this kind of thinking is that the total addressable market (TAM) is notoriously hard to estimate without gathering expensive data and worse your share of the market may be infinitesimal unless you are one of the top 2-3 in the space (in any space) because the distribution typically has a very long and thin tail.

    But I see people make this mistake all the time when deciding what apps to make to whether to make them. "If only we got 1% of all the iPhone users".... This is a trap but brings in a lot of developers playing the AppStore Lottery every day. 99%+ of them are disappointed with the results.

    It is not for me to judge your app because I am not a target user for your app, but you should try to find some and talk to them about it and see why they like it or don't.

    Dropping the price to free seldom works unless you go completely into a freemium model which has its own pros and cons. At best, it gets a huge number of free downloads, hopefully a few good reviews if the app is good and you "nag" them politely to leave reviews but as soon as you go back to paid, it gets back to your original rate.

    Most independent developers do this price-dropping because it is the easiest thing to do and under their own control as opposed to any marketing which requires money.

    If it hasn't spread virally by now, it likely will not at any price unless you change something about it that will make it spread virally. A problem might be that people are unwilling to admit to others that they use it even if they like it.

    For example, rather than sell it as an app for people serious about their... ahem... can you recast it into a gag app that people will use and share in social situations? Even if it is like a movie that is so bad that it is good. For example, can you make the app automatically embellish their achievements with any picture they can download, etc. Just brainstorming to give you to pivot around your original idea, not suggesting a specific idea. Bring something unique or gimmicky to the app.

    Unless it is part of a bigger marketing campaign, making an app free, doesn't appear to be anything more than the death throes of an app that will soon be abandoned like the bargain bins in bookstores.

    Just a few opinions, take it for what it is worth.
     
  8. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    Great feedback. Thank you.
    You are spot on about the "death-throws" ... seems like I have tried all the marketing techniques I can think of and I doubt I have been able to get in front of my target audience (assuming I have even identified them correctly) ... so this is more of a final effort to do so.
    This is a great experiment ... time will tell if it falls flat as you predict :)
    please stay tuned. I will be happy to post weekly downloads & progress
     
  9. lolzappan

    lolzappan Well-Known Member

    Feb 7, 2012
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    I would imagine the dating industry to be bigger than 2B, but if your question is that making it free what would be your potential conversion, industry averages tend to discuss ranges from 2-6%

    You want to make it free and then see conversion?
     
  10. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    Yes. I am now free. I will continue free till I get a modest amount of downloads (hoping for lots) and then will go to $0.99 (was at $1.99 before I went free)
    Will be a good experiment I suppose ;)
     
  11. headcaseGames

    headcaseGames Well-Known Member

    Jun 26, 2009
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    Mobile Game Developer
    Hollywood, CA
    ahh yeah - this is a tough one. There's tons of apps like this where someone tries to "corner their own market" with something very niche, and hopefully appealing to a very broad casual userbase - but it feels like it was designed out of the "wouldn't this be a good idea" camp rather than "the market has been waiting for something like this!" As such these types of apps can be quite hard to sell, and as mentioned, without an easily accessible gimmick/joke/etc then they tend to fall in with a lot of the other clutter out there. This is a shame because for one, clearly a good amount of time and money was spent designing and (trying to promote) the app, and also because there is some truth to the initial thought "an app like this could be popular."

    Ultimately the best thing to do at this point is to move on and try to learn from mistakes when crafting a new app, and at least this one will still be "out there" in the case that whatever you do next finds some success and could potentially upsell to this as well. Short of that, some degree of revamp could occur but at that point it becomes a case of throwing more money after money.

    Love/dating statistical tracking apps are certainly not a bad idea, but again without some gimmick/ very obvious entertainment value then they can be very difficult to sell without enormous marketing budget..
     
  12. Hey My Love Life

    Honestly, without any ancillary marketing, it'll be hard to convince people to pay for your app. Start it out as a free app and see what traction you get. Make the "Free" period a limited time option, and use the users you get to test out your app functionality and get feedback. After making a major update or two, use that as a good time to end the "Free" period and switch to the $0.99 model.

    I, for one, believe that if your app adds good value, people will definitely pay $0.99 for it since it's unique and solves a problem (not just a game). Only thing is that without some existing users or other marketing, people may never find out about it

    Good luck
     
  13. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    Great advice. Thank you.
    This will definitely be a decent test ... and I will post weekly downloads each Saturday :)
     
  14. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    As promised ... the numbers.

    Here are last weeks numbers:

    Valentines day free sale: 465 downloads

    Feb. 18: 42 (free downloads)
    Feb. 19: 59
    Feb. 20: 45
    Feb. 21: 31
    Feb. 22: 61
    Feb. 23: 25
    Feb. 24: 34

    Weekly total: 397
     
  15. SibaStyle

    SibaStyle Active Member

    Oct 19, 2011
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    I downloaded your app. It is a well done app, unfortunately I don't believe the market for an app like this is all that big. I believe that you could market the dating side of the app to single ladies of all ages, and you could market the sex side to teenage boys and college kids.

    So as far as advertising, I would advertise on the "hook up" type dating websites, such as PlentyOfFish.com and market it as a sex experience tracking app.

    Maybe you could try Facebook, simply for the reason you can target specific sexes and ages. So you could create an add that states "SEX - track and rate your Sex experiences" and have it appear on males between the ages of 16 and 25 and another one that states "Dating Diary - track all your dating experiences" and have it appear on women between the ages of 18 and 30.

    Just a few ideas.

    Good luck with it. It is a well done app and certainly worth the 1.99 for the targeted user. Me, I'm a married guy so I wouldn't say that I am your in your target base.
     
  16. My Love Life

    My Love Life Well-Known Member

    Great advice. Thank you.
    I have posted an add on POF ... lets see if it boosts the free sales (if so, maybe i'll put it back to $0.99 ?)
    I already did Facebook & am trying google adwords.
     

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