App application development is not easy

Individual developer Slot app development entrepreneurship is very difficult, monthly income only thousand yuan; without a business model, mobile internet investment slowed sharply.

"If you continue like this, one day I might die in front of the computer, and my partner may be divorcing me." "Mobile game developer Huang Jun wrote in Micro Borrie.

Can not play the list, the game is cracked, can not find domestic pay users ... A year of entrepreneurship rather than let the yellow to realize the dream of the beginning, not to make money of the reality instead of his hair white more than half.

Like Huang Jun, most of the founders who had piled into the mobile apps industry were struggling to survive. Only 23.3% of developers were able to profit from application development by the end of November 2012, according to data from the AI media consultancy.

Capital has also spent the "Crazy for mobile internet" years. App developers are becoming more and more difficult to get financing. "App development is dead. "Zhu Lianching asserts as one of the earliest app developers in the country.

"Personal developer is dead"

In a year of entrepreneurship, Huang Jun "Development to 4 o'clock in the morning, 9 o'clock in the morning to get Up", "a year of white hair more than half." This is the average monthly income of more than 1000 dollars.

January 23, Huang Jun, 33, published a long microblog titled "The Death of a personal developer." In an article that quickly sparked a number of peers, Huang Jun poured out his depression and despair over the past year in developing mobile gaming.

Huang Jun's entrepreneurial story began in early 2012. At that time, saw the mobile game "created one myth after another", has been doing game development in Shanghai for nearly 10 years of Huang Jun, decided to resign a monthly salary of more than 10,000 jobs, with a friend of the game Circle began to start a business.

"Every day squatting at home Tinker" Nearly 3 months later, Huang Jun launched the first app works-"Meng Meng push gold." Limited (limited-limit free, one of the most common app application methods) on the first day thousands of downloads, once let Huang Jun rejoice.

Start with a 2.99-dollar standard fee, "Meng Meng push gold" download began to drop sharply. Soon, other developers of the push gold game is also online.

At this time, a search for the door of the app company and Huang Jun reached a "46-divided" agreement. They just sent a few tweets and uploaded a video that didn't work. "Let Huang Jun feel angry is, so, not only promote the company in vain to earn hundreds of yuan, but also delayed the best time to promote the game."

But, frankly, Huang Jun and his friends don't have much to promote-they can only post posts on Weibo or gaming forums. But according to Huang Jun's January 28 surveillance, 5 users who paid to download and push the gold coin game, none came from the mainland. Huang Jun is helpless to attract foreign customers who are willing to spend money.

At that time, also has the brush list Company "5000 yuan per day and guaranteed to enter the top 10 of the domestic game list", but as a grassroots entrepreneur Huang Jun, feel too expensive, can not afford to brush.

After the attack, Huang Jun decided to develop a "fitness" type of game. When developed to half the time, he was embarrassed to find that the domestic one of the same type of game has come out. Weigh repeatedly after, can't bear to give up Huang Jun decided to continue to develop.

At the end of 2012, the game named "Graveyard Keeper" was online. He set the game for the profit Way is "free download, sell props, collect advertising fees."

However, "Graveyard Keeper" Download volume is still very few. To add insult to the issue, a domestic website released the game's cracked version.

He begged the cracked party to say, "Take it off, I thank you on behalf of Borns". Cracked square A few words "good", no much action.

For Huang Jun, this means that half a year's hard work has been wasted. In a year of entrepreneurship, he "developed to 4 o'clock in the morning, 9 o'clock in the morning to get up", "sometimes feel dizzy to bed after a while, and then sit to the front of the computer", "a year of white hair more than half." This is the average monthly income of more than 1000 dollars.

"If I go on, I may die one day in front of the computer, and my partner may be getting divorced," he said. Huang Jun said he had decided to bid farewell to game development after the Spring Festival and find a company to go to work.

Development of the "wall"

Individual success stories make many people have the illusion of a night of fame, when these dream developers formally enter the door of the app development, they will find the difficulties of promotion, Shanzhai, domestic users do not want to pay a number of walls, across the front.

At present, the domestic app developers like Huang Jun have reached millions of. According to Yi, secretary general of China Mobile's Internet Industry Alliance, some developers have been involved in app development rather than deliberate, but based on irrational impulses.

Yi said, "Angry Birds," such as the explosion of games and media coverage of successful entrepreneurs, so many people have a night to become famous illusion, even illusion. He cited the example of a Shanghai real estate project, a young man has not found the direction of development, "must resign to play mobile internet."

In this respect, when the App store was launched in 2008, Zhu Lianching had some experience: a female reporter interviewed after Zhu Lian Hing soon, from his team to dig several engineers to set up the app development company; companies or organizations outside the industry, see app development in full swing, "a pat forehead" To find Zhu Lianching to do outsourcing, "there is a plan to launch a car application of the boss, put forward in the application of micro-bo, micro-letter, such as more than 100 functions." ”

When these dream developers officially step into the door of the app development, they will find that the promotion of difficulties, the mountain is rife, domestic users do not want to pay a number of walls, across the front.

30-Year-old Zhang Yi, is to promote the cost of hundreds of thousands of yuan exercise time app--"benefits move GPS." "Recommend kneeling." Zhang Yi said that he has in recent days on the QQ repeatedly to several app recommended Web site editors to state the merits of the application, in order to strive for application is recommended, the other side some day reply, some days back, some directly ignored.

January 25, the main female physiological cycle calculation of "Aunt" founder Rauschecker, to more than 200 colleagues to share his "How to get Users" experience. The 27-Year-old said his team had gained more than 5 million of users by listening to the feedback of female users and by figuring out how women are psychologically.

But he has also recently encountered something that bothers him-the application is "cottage". Before long, the App store online a name and "Aunt" only one word of the difference, and the interface exactly similar application. At first, after sending a letter to the other, this application has been in the frame for some time. Rauschecker said, a few days later, the cottage application quietly online again, "I am ready to litigate with them." ”

Rauschecker lawsuit of the emboldened lies in his previous registration for the application of trademarks, "Those who do not have registered trademarks of the application, encountered the situation of the cottage, the basic powerless." ”

"There is no moral bottom line in this industry," he said. "Zhu Lianching said, in addition to Shanzhai, plagiarism, the spirit of the contract has repeatedly been ignored," domestic and foreign package business default rate is very high. ”

According to Zhu Lianching recalls, he once took over a company's app development outsourcing, the price is 30,000 yuan. His salesman with write after the source code to handover, the other side asked the salesman "first put down, back to open the invoice."

And when the salesman returned with the invoice, but the source code has errors for the return. Zhu Lianching suspected that during the period, "they have copied the source code away." ”

Zhu Lianching is hesitant whether or not to prosecute each other, "forensics is very difficult, and the lawyer fee may spend 50,000 yuan." The total price of this contract is only 30,000 yuan.

The coldness of the capital market

At present, most of the app applications in China do not see their own business model. Investors became cautious and sensible when the frenzied investment of 2010 and 2011 did not return.

"A lot of grassroots entrepreneurs and teams have no business training, just don't know how to make money." "Most app apps in the country don't see their business model," said Yang Haitao, director of Angel Capital investment in 21st century.

Yang Haitao that some developers are still holding the idea of the Internet before the operation of app application, "to make the scale of users, money will come naturally." But in the mobile internet, how to convert users to profit, many developers are still not very clear.

This situation is similar to the internet boom around 2000, and in the "universal Internet investment" boom, many companies have been floating on the internet, including Lenovo and Tcl, the "traditional" technology industry manufacturers. In that frenzy, almost all websites did not see their business model at the beginning, even including portals.

Individual developer Slot app development Business difficult, monthly income only thousand yuan; no business model found, mobile internet investment slowed sharply

In 2012, 16% of developers chose to use paid downloads as their main profit model, and 56.6% of developers opted for "free downloads + embedded ads in apps", according to an AI media consultancy survey.

"The amount of mobile advertising is increasing, but the trend of polarization is becoming more and more obvious." Zhang, the chief executive of the media consultancy, said advertisers were more attracted to apps giants with hundreds of millions of users, and that "only tens of thousands of and a hundred thousand of users were getting a downward trend in advertising." ”

Without mature profit model, some small and medium entrepreneurs can only survive by "their own savings and undertake outsourcing". And many large internet companies into the app industry after the launch of the talent scramble, it increased the difficulty of its operations.

According to Rauschecker revealed that the original engineer in his company a monthly salary of 8000 yuan, but a large company directly out of 28,000 of the monthly salary to dig it away. and Zhang Yi said that in order not to raise wages will be able to retain people, he "give options, tube eat, relax attendance, and will send some advertisers to provide clothing and ski tools."

MA (micro-bo) to do Tencent almost sold, how can think of value-added services to do so big, the Internet is doing to do there are patterns out. Mo began, there is no very grand idea. The founder and COO of the Science and Technology of MO

Domestic entrepreneurial environment is indeed very difficult, the brush list has become a convention, especially in the game app. In order to look good, use the capital of the venture to make the appearance. When the money is broken, the position falls again. United Information co-founder Chen SA

As of November 2012, the percentage of mobile app developers who made a profit was 22.3%, compared with 14.8% in the first half of 2012, according to an AI survey. "This short-term turnaround has been achieved by sacrificing the user experience in such ways as malicious advertising and malicious deduction." Does not mean that the industry has improved. ”

At the same time, according to the survey, in 2012, 30.9% of the developers expected their annual income of less than 10,000 yuan, annual income between 10,000-50,000, 50,000-100,000 of the proportion of 15.5% and 17.7%, while the income of more than 5 million yuan is less than 3.4%.

Considering that "the real good application is very few, the application profitability is not too strong" and other factors, last year Yang Haitao saw more than 100 app apps, "one did not vote".

According to data released by the group, the 2012 domestic mobile internet industry disclosure case 46, compared with 2011 37.8%, total investment of 594 million U.S. dollars, compared to the previous year's growth 17.4%--mobile internet investment a sharp slowdown trend.

"Investors became cautious and sensible after the frantic investment of 2010 and 2011 did not return." "The mobile internet has been a topic of abuse in the investment circle, and the investment and development of app applications has begun to bubble," Yi said.

Some developers have lamented that the competition for developers to gain investment and to get users down is getting fiercer. Taking into account the slow pace of new mobile phone updates caused by the app a few innovative space, has turned to the development of audio two-dimensional code technology Zhu Lianching even assert that "app development is dead."

Zhang Yi says the question he is thinking about every day is "how to Live".

Interview

In the eyes of some "winners", mobile internet is still a promising prospect. Although no clear business model has been found, they are no longer too much to consider the problem of life and death, but more focus on the user experience and capital operations. The dotcom boom of more than 10 years ago gave them the clout--a lot of the boom-and-burn sites that survived, and eventually found the right business model. What do they think of the new mobile internet boom?

Wang Li: Mobile interconnection takes time

Mo Mo Technology Joint founder, COO Wang Li said, currently not consider profit

Get inspiration from a pick-up

Beijing News: What was the founder's first choice to do?

Wang Li: This idea is CEO Yantan to come out, once in a restaurant in Guangzhou, want to know the girl not far away, but the pick-up is not very consistent with character, want to have a mobile phone can be positioned in that much good. Later learned that there is no domestic product of this form.

The earliest idea is simpler, before the traditional internet to know a person difficult, need to be in the site forum for a long time contact, now people pressure, time fragmentation, need a more lightweight products.

BEIJING News: Mo and micro-letter, rice chat and other competitors of the difference in where, how to win?

Wang Li: We are launched in August 2011, micro-letter than we were about 1 years ago, the beginning is to do voice intercom, no social modules. We are the way to move and socialize. There are no competitors in this field.

I don't really want to use the traditional advertising model

The Beijing News: Do you consider making profit now?

Wang Li: After all, only a year, not too much consideration of the matter. Mobile interconnection is a new thing, it takes time.

The existing traditional advertising model, do not want to do. We have also reserved the advertising position, may put some of their own product information in the future publicity. User size to a certain extent.

The Beijing News: app's entrepreneurial environment is different now from two years ago.

Wang Li: We were still relatively relaxed atmosphere, not so many large internet companies to jump in, now this stage to intervene, has been very intense. However, the best place for startups is to try and make the right decisions immediately, and the big companies can't.

Do it, there's a pattern.

Beijing News: Do you have any suggestions for new entrants?

Wang Li: The direction is more important, can make the plate, imagine the space is quite big. The wrong direction, how hard it doesn't work. For example, social intercourse is always a proposition that everyone needs. Other can not say, entrepreneurial direction is not the same, starting time is not the same, so the significance of reference is not small. We are not successful entrepreneurs, are still in the initial stage, it is very silly to start preaching to others.

Beijing News: Although the model is not clear, your own to the future of the MO, there is no accurate idea?

Wang Li: Ma do Tencent almost sold, how can I think of the value-added services to do so big, the Internet is doing to do there are patterns out. Mo began, there is no very grand idea.

We have a cultural concept of the idea, now the city people are more indifferent, can let these people, and another person to establish communication, restore warmth of things.

Beijing News reporter Liu Xia

Combined Chen SA: in-line brush list into practice

Union Information co-founder Chen said, "extremely hate against" brush list

Profit model for fee download

Beijing News: A lot of apps are staring at the business card this piece, your cards, the almighty King seems to be the most famous, how to stand out?

Chen SA: The use of software for business card recognition is a very threshold technology, the need for years of technology accumulation and hundreds of billions of data samples for analysis. The business Card Almighty Wang Many of the pioneering team are senior researchers in the field of pattern recognition, the company has also applied for the relevant patents.

Beijing News: What is the main profit model now?

Chen SA: Our products from the first listing is charged, mainly in the application store for users to download fees, but there are some free experience version.

The business Card Almighty has now covered most handset makers, including Nokia, Motorola, HTC, ZTE and Huawei. Because our products can increase the selling point for handset manufacturers, pre-installed will charge them a certain fee, which is part of the revenue source.

Brush list false Unsustainable

Beijing News: At present, the app entrepreneurial environment is not very clean, brush list popular, how do you think?

Chen SA: The domestic entrepreneurial environment is indeed very difficult, the brush list has become a convention, especially in the game app. In order to look good, use the capital of the venture to make the appearance. When the money is broken, the position falls again.

Although the brush list on our company's products have little impact, but I very much hate to oppose this way, because it is false and unsustainable. Specifically do not want developers to adopt.

BEIJING News: What kind of app will have better prospects in the future?

Chen SA: not only limited in the mobile above, can be mobile phones, tablets, PC platform to get through the products, I am more optimistic.

We are now in this regard, the new scanning software, can cover each terminal identification, and scanner factory to discuss cooperation, in the future through sales into the enterprise side, to help small and medium-sized enterprises for day-to-day management.