Social apps have a pretty "standard" growth hack that's not that user-friendly but is pretty much rocket fuel for growth - They force you to invite your friends in order to use the app.
Lapse is one of the latest examples of how well that works, and what happens when you turn that off.
But there's a catch - you have to know your audience.
Amo didn't...
Amo is a weird sort of social app that lets you and your friends create very expressive profiles full of stickers and images. Sort of a messy chaotic collage of who you are.
Weird, but how are the downloads?
According to our App Intelligence. ID by amo, which is only available on the App Store, had a total of 77.5K downloads since it was released about two weeks ago. About a half came in the first two days and the trend sloped down very quickly.
Downloads have dropped under 3K per day on average.
This story isn't about another overnight success, so most of us won't get to play with stickers.
And what was meant to make it grow actually held it back. Unlike other social apps, the initial batch of users really didn't like the need to share contacts. It could be because that batch was more techy, or maybe it's because there was a lot of dislike for Lapse's requirement, but it just didn't work.
ID never took off. The growth hack failed.
A great reminder that you really have to understand and build for your audience.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
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