ep 02: how to get your first 10,000 users

1BUZINGA APP DEVELOPMENT

Hey guys, Logan Merrick here and you’re listening to episode 2 of The Buzinga Podcast: The number 1 resource for startups building and growing their business in the tech space.


Logan Merrick:I’m the co-founder and director of Buzinga.


Customer Acquisition Strategies - how you can pull customers in to get a steady stream of app downloads.

I want to talk about some of the biggest and most successful apps in the world, with millions of active users. But I’m going to focus on

how they got their first 10,000 users.

Intro to what we’re covering today


• Angry Birds• Uber• Tinder• Yo• Snapchat• Instagram • Candy Crush• Fruit Ninja

Businesses we’re going to look at


Most businesses have humble beginningsWe’re going to start with how they got their first 10,000 app

downloads

Why I chose this topic for our 2nd episode


• Initially it was a total flop - or at least for the first 3 months

• Where they went wrong: Focused on the most competitive and (traditionally perceived as lucrative) English speaking markets

1. Angry Birds


Founder Matt Wilson started targeting smaller nations

• Suddenly they started seeing results - #1 on Finnish App Store

• Then 30-40,000 downloads from hitting #1 in Sweden

• Then Denmark, Greece, Czech Republic…

1. Angry Birds


• Then the founders linked up with app publisher, Chillingo to push into US and UK territories (90% of market)

• In 2010 Chillingo got Apple to feature Angry Birds on front page of UK App Store - game of the week

The rest is history!

1. Angry Birds


(Summary) What workedTargeted smaller nations first - low hanging fruit. Then pushed into

bigger nations through publishing partnership.

1. Angry Birds


• Initially launched in 2010 - Silicon Valley, Uber Black only. Built on $200,000 seed capital.

• Released UberX to open up to larger audience

2. Uber


• 2013 aggressively leveraging tech networks to get first drivers onboard

• Started offering free rides to students during Boston bus worker strike

• End of 2013 Uber had expanded from 12 cities to 35 cities. Revenues growing by 18% per month.

2. Uber


(Summary) What worked Co-founders leveraged their networks in the startup tech scene to spread the word around San Francisco. - Offered free rides. Raised

$1.25m

2. Uber


3. Tinder


3. Tinder

Leveraged network effect (hyper-local viral growth)


3. Tinder

They targeted American college sorority girls as early adopters.

Why? Because the more girls that would come the more boys would be drawn to it.


3. Tinder

Viral growth = imminent.

100% growth year on year


3. Tinder

How? Free events and parties. Incentives!


3. Tinder

(Summary) What worked: Identified their early adopters. Attracted them with special

incentives.


4. Yo

• Yo is stupidly simple.And not necessarily a successful business…

• Raised $1.5m at $10m evaluation… not sure if it eventuated into anything.


4. Yo

• Created in 8 hours at Israeli Tech Company – Mobli

• Founders Hogeg and Arbel were so embarassed they didnt tell anyone about it and wouldn’t publish it under their names.


4. Yo

• Launched quietly on April Fools Day.

• BUT… it was rejected by Apple.

• Arbel and Hogeg fought back and eventually got it through into the App Store.


4. Yo

Founders eventually shared the app with wife’s and assistant. Then made it available to all Mobli employees - emplored them not

to share with friends…


4. Yo

But the app was impossible to contain. People became addicted.


4. Yo

Within a month, 20,000 downloads iwthin Tel Aviv..


4. Yo

(Summary) What workedSimple, simple, simple. Launched through the company they

worked for.


5. SnapChat

• Nearly everyone knows SnapChat.

• Viral marketing - Word Of Mouth


5. SnapChat

• They noticed spikes of traffic between 8am and 3pm.

• Turns out the activity was centered around a high school in Orange County.

• Evan Spiegel (founder) had told his cousin who was a student at the school…


5. SnapChat

Other high schools caught on to it. Daily active users climbed from 3,000-30,000 in a

month.


5. SnapChat

Snapchat wasn’t exclusive to iPhones. Also available on iPod touch which is popular

among younger generations with hand-me-downs.


5. SnapChat

Rapid growth through schools gave SnapChat a platform for expansion

• We all know what the kids were sending each other.


5. SnapChat

(Summary) What workedReviewed their data to better understand where their customers were coming from. Luckily they were exposed to the high school.

Exposing your business/service/app to different demographics can quickly tell you where to focus your time.


6. Instagram

Famed for becoming #1 photo sharing app within 8 hours of

launch


6. Instagram

In first week Instagram had been downloaded 100,0000 times

• Another week passed and another 100,000 downloads

• in 551 days Instagram userbase had grown to 30,000,000 users.


6. Instagram

Attributes their fast growth to linking in with other social networks, like Facebook, Twitter

and Foursquare


6. Instagram

This allowed Instagram to be exposed to thousands of people who wouldn’t normally

have seen it - 100% organically.


6. Instagram

Check out our Case-study in the show notes


6. Instagram

(Summary) What worked: Leveraging other networks and platforms. Essentially, partnerships.


7. Candy Crush

Built in virality...


7. Candy Crush

Remember Virality is not a strategy - but ‘encouraged social sharing’ most

certainly is


7. Candy Crush

Cleverly integrated with Facebook to drive user adoption


7. Candy Crush

Players progress in the game - Candy Crush would post updates to FB on their behalf


7. Candy Crush

They also show user progression with friends. This fostered competition among

friends resulting in sharing of achievements, friendly banter outside of the game, and of

course pushed them to play the game harder.


7. Candy Crush

Lastly, if players run out of lives they can either wait for 20 minutes...or they can invite

friends to the game. What do you think people did?


7. Candy Crush

(Summary) What worked: Social sharing and social competition drove

the virality loop.


8. Fruit Ninja


8. Fruit Ninja

Developed by Independant Australian Game Studio - Half Brick House

• Also responsible for Jet Pack Joy Ride, Monster Dash, Radical Rappelling, Age of Zombies and Colossatron...and many more.• Fruit Ninja was the game that put the company on the radar


8. Fruit Ninja

How did they get the game off the ground?


8. Fruit Ninja

Pushed the game to the developer community - developer community is an extremely engaged

community. Incredibly helpful and look after their own. Many developers do work for free to contribute to the

community.


8. Fruit Ninja

First launch video was the Lead in a banana suit fighting a ninja


8. Fruit Ninja

Pretty amateur. Not for mainstream - but worked for developer community

• This was very unusual for a game development company at this time...but it worked


8. Fruit Ninja

(Summary) What worked: They targeted the developer community as their launching

platform. Created a video to stir some laughter among their peers.


Hope you take something out of this


Remember There are plenty of ways to market your product, and these are 8

really great ways that have been proven to work.


If you’re going to use these strategies & tactics make sure to

adapt them to 2016.


If you want to learn more about marketing and user acquisition then check out our blog, i’ve included 3 relevant blogs in the show notes for this episode, which you can find on our blog at buzinga.com.au/buzz.

Launch Hack: How To Get 100,000 downloads in a monthCustomer Acquisition: How to reel in your first 10,000 usersHow To Build An App Born To Go Viral Like Candy Crush


For more of this please subscribe on iTunes, on Youtube or on our

blog.


See you on the next episode

ep 02: how to get your first 10,000 users

Small Business & Entrepreneurship