Raise your hand if you've seen Gmail's paywall. I bet you haven't, but that doesn't mean Gmail isn't making money from its app.
Actually! Its in-app revenue has been growing steadily every single month since starting to monetize with in-app purchases in 2021.
According to our estimates, Gmail's net revenue from the App Store was $7.3M in July. And that's net, meaning what Google gets to keep after Apple takes its share.
Our estimates show that in January, that total was $5.1M and in January of 2022 it was just $1M. That means Gmail's net revenue grew 630% in the last year and a half!
And that's just from the App Store.
So, what is Gmail even selling? Space.
Gmail offers several subscriptions to grow your inbox, with the 100GB subscription being the most popular right now. This is a bit different than how it's done on Android, where purchases go through the Google One app, which has been the highest-earning app on Google Play for a very long time.
On the App Store, Google One makes some money, but not nearly as much.
There's one thing developers can learn from this, aside from the big brand name. The subscriptions Gmail is offering easily fall into the "features you need" category, making the purchasing decision pretty easy when the space is necessary.
Instead of forcing users to see your paywall when you want them to, find the features your users need and make sure they know they're there when they actually need them. That's how you'll convert them into paying users.
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