{"id":43067,"date":"2023-10-20T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/what-to-do-if-facebook-beats-your-app-to-launch-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:25:51","slug":"what-to-do-if-facebook-beats-your-app-to-launch-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/what-to-do-if-facebook-beats-your-app-to-launch-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do if Facebook beats your app to launch – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Put yourself in the shoes of a platform innovation director or apps development honcho at a small to mid-sized company. You figure you can carve out a scorching-hot niche for yourself by being first-to-market with a platform-agnostic mobile app letting OSX or Android users immerse themselves in 360 degree virtual reality video content, including games.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You pride yourself on keeping your ear to the ground, but it can still be an unpleasant surprise when you come across news like this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the app market has evolved, it\u2019s become more difficult for developers or publishers to succeed in the middle. Maybe you\u2019ve lived through that scenario yourself: a Facebook, or a Google, or an Oracle, BigMachines or Salesforce arrives on the scene with an app or platform that might not beat you to market but they\u2019ve plainly got a much bigger sword to swing – with all their resources arrayed against you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t give up. You might not even realise all the weapons you\u2019ve got in your arsenal or the steps you can take to turn the situation to your advantage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Admit the reality<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As soon as a big dog shows up, companies are forced into the \u201cchallenger brand\u201d position, so admit it to yourself and get a firm grasp on the strategies and virtues a challenger can deploy successfully, like nimbleness and the ability to take risks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Embrace agility<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We instinctively assume the big dog on the block has the advantage, but their very size makes them vulnerable. Even a Facebook has inertia to overcome in making mid-course adjustments when changes might damage their business model or affect profits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A small app developer or marketer can afford to expedite innovation or upgrades much more readily.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dig For deeper opportunities<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If they invade your niche, identity a sub-niche your larger competitors may overlook.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You might be able to add features that provide value for a certain user segment, features that bigger competitors don\u2019t view as profitable or broad enough in their appeal. If that niche pans out it gives you a base to build from.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take risks<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The team behind sports news app GameOn aren\u2019t just taking on kingpins like ESPN – they\u2019re hoping to tempt sports fans away from Twitter, SnapChat and even cable companies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But each new feature upgrade has been judiciously gradual, and they\u2019ve successfully focused on building from niche fan bases that are underserved, like the global audience for cricket.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Maximise your backend<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An app is more than what\u2019s resident on the device; most need to offer 2\/47 backend services like messaging, sharing, syncing or other web-based features.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That can be an advantage for the little guy according to Brent Simmons, a long-time indie developer who\u2019s been a partner in Q Branch, maker of note-taking app Vesper.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to think that only the big players can create compelling online services that scale. But Cloud-based backend services are levelling the playing field,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tools and technology have progressed so far, so fast, and the price keeps going down.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Customer service<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the \u201cshopkeeper\u2019s advantage\u201d of knowing and engaging on a more personalised level with customers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t discount the power of smallness when it comes to the relationship you have with the people you serve, particularly if you\u2019re in the B2B\/enterprise space.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having a more intimate, one-to-one rapport with them matters a lot – especially if they\u2019re SMEs themselves who\u2019ll especially appreciate the attention and responsiveness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Partner up<\/b><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

A smaller firm can tie in with other companies that provide a good fit and cloud-based business apps provider Zoho did exactly that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Zoho found Google had invaded its category, it partnered with 1&1 Internet in an arrangement that put its office productivity apps in front of the web-hosting giant\u2019s 10 million plus users.<\/p>\n

Zoho went a step further, and launched new apps like its Zojo CRM in Google\u2019s own apps marketplace, where it became one of the most popular in its segment.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not impossible to compete with a Facebook or other goliath when they invade your app category, but it takes focus, ingenuity and <\/b>hard <\/b>work when they ratchet up the challenges facing a developer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget that when Goliath faced David, the smarter, more agile and innovative competitor won. The big guy never stood a chance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark McDonald is the co-founder and co-CEO<\/i> Appster<\/i>, a leading mobile app and product development company with offices in Melbourne and San Francisco.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Put yourself in the shoes of a platform innovation director or apps development honcho at a small to mid-sized company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}