Mobile Apps Won’t Stay Free; Chris Wade of Shozu
Mobile Apps Wont stay free
In this very interesting article on mocoNews, Shozu CEO Chris Wade explains how and why he believes that very soon, mobile app developers such as himself, as well as many others (and especially those backed by VC’s) will have to charge users to download and/or use their applications and services.
As we at VASreport.com have pointed out before, the mobile content (and especially applications) market has been a free-riding one for the last 10 years. Funnily, not the mainstream low-value content such as ringtones, operator logos etc., which carriers and service providers have had a great deal of success charging for, but the stuff niche, high-value content such as targeted applications, social media integration apps etc., is all just lying there, up for grabs to whoever wants to download.
Many developers have hoped to reap the fruits of their labour by more or less successful advertising strategies. But for most, that is a long shot. VC’s want quick results, and in a market that changes by the day, revolutionizes by the month, most VC’s dont have the financial stamina to sit back and wait.
So whether or not they like it, and I am sure most don’t, mobile app developers will soon have to wake up and smell them coffee beans and put a price tag on their downloads.
The good news is, momentarily a plethora of startups will be willing to help them monetize on their apps. Several mpayment (mobile payment) companies, such as Boku, Zong and oneTXT are launching or have launched services that enables content providers to charge end users for content downloads and usage. It’s going to be very interesting to see who will take home this market. At this point, it is difficult to say who and what will make the difference, it is simply too early. But at the end, I believe it will be about two things; providing value to the end user/customer in terms of usability and accessibility, and to provide financial value to the content provider (high payouts, low fees).
I totally agree on this.. Developers and content providers such as myself have been philanthropists for sooo long… People cant expect to get good stuff without paying for it anymore. And with the ad market these days, someone’s gotta pay!