Are passive consumer apps dead?

Lessons from shutting down 2 content products ͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­ Forwarded this email? [Subscribe here]() for more [Are passive consumer apps dead?]( Lessons from shutting down 2 content products May 1   [READ IN APP](   Just saw the news of Paras shutting down Nintee / consumer apps - he raised $3mn from PeakXV and others like Kunal Shah). A good decision I must say. [white iphone 5 c on white table]( As somebody who worked on consumer apps for more than 2 years - first launched FWD, which ended up winning Google’s best app of the year award..and last year launched #BigIdeas, which was GenAI powered learning product (pretty good takeoff with avg time spent ~7 mins), I believe passive consumer apps are extremely difficult in the times of Insta/YT/TikTok. [Upgrade to paid]( What’s a passive consumer app? Passive consumer apps are those that primarily focus on (textual) content consumption rather than immediate, essential needs. - Passive consumer apps are platforms where users predominantly consume content without actively participating or engaging in two-way interactions. - These apps cater to users who seek information, entertainment, or enrichment rather than fulfilling urgent requirements (like food/grocery delivery) or hopium services like dating/chatting. Typically, these are content heavy apps or use content as a key anchor (think on the lines of Blinkist, Deepstash etc) - they do not fall into a user’s ‘I NEED THIS NOW” behavior. That is: content driven, non-urgent, mobile-first experiences. Designed for on-the-go experience, these apps usually generate revenue through subscriptions. Over the long term, they can become highly profitable businesses (after the initial phase, the cost to serve customers becomes almost negligible, as a substantial content library will have been built up over time). --------------------------------------------------------------- The ideal market for such products is..US and the earlier you get there, the better it is. But even the US market is highly saturated and unless you have a very differentiating content (for e.g. Pocketfm is relying on adult stories to crack the US market), there is hardly a chance to go beyond the early 1000 paying subscribers. --------------------------------------------------------------- The biggest challenge IMO: 2 major challenges - Development/Maintenance cost - The damn funnel dance If you are/have a good developer, you can manage the dev cost, but given the global nature of these products, you need to continuously keep investing in great user experience and that mandates a good upfront plus ongoing investment to match up to the experience (manageable, but let’s come to the next point) The funnel dance The AARRR funnel gets really tough to crack unless you are ready to spend a good amount of $$$s. The dance to get users to download your app, to engage with it and then…someday decide to pay you that ‘massive’ $7.99 per month is a huge one and needs a lot of patience capital. [Image result for AARRR]( The big question to ask is whether you are ready to participate in this dance? Is there a pot of gold somewhere? Frankly, Blinkist was super lucky to get acquired (a few weeks before ChatGPT was announced), but given the commoditized perception of content space, it’s really tough to build a successful business in this space. They can be a fun/side experiment (i.e. you have no real expectations) but expecting serious revenue business at scale has become very tough now. The economics of running such products (the long AARRR funnel) isn't in favour of surviving in the short run, unless you are very well funded. Which raises another important question - is there even a market for such products anymore? Or you are just going to rely on the leftovers? What’s your take? 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