It was interesting to see how this happens, so here it is. The original story is here.
http://theheureka.com/startup-swell-replaced-app-chatbot-20170123
Swell, an Austrian startup, is an app that is based on the concept of "throwing small daily decisions for you to decide".
- Upload two images.
- Make a question sentence (Udon / Soba? /which hat is better? something like that)
- You'll get a response in seconds.
- You can respond to the MySwell feeds you follow as they come in.
The above is a story about how they took a native app and made it into a Facebook Messenger app and released it, and the overall number of users increased. However, it says that "user follow function", "notifications", "trend analysis", etc. are on the FB infrastructure, so it was a difficult point.
They say that 40% of new users come through other Swell users' feeds or referrals, and at that stage, they haven't used the app or chatbot or anything. In terms of conversion, "sending out information shared on SNS by Chatbot" is higher than "invitation DM from existing users".
There is always a danger of a straw effect when you get on some platform. As transportation networks with big cities become better and more convenient, it means that local population and capital will be sucked into the big cities. As for the question of whether a regional city like Native App riding on the platform of a big city like FB will ultimately hasten its death...
Now, will we kill our app? Well, time and KPIs will tell...
I hope you have a good night.
