I saw a tweet about this and it couldn’t be more true. It is so extremely easy to build an app and pretty much anyone can do it, and too many people are trying to do it. And unfortunately because of this saturation, we have reached the end of apps being profitable as we know it.
People are no longer willing to pay for apps. I personally don’t pay for any. There are 2.4 million apps on the App Store and counting. So I would guess less than 0.001% of apps are profitable.
With all this being said, what are the best things to build nowadays that can be profitable? I’m starting to think that blue collar businesses might be making a comeback.
If you guys arent willing to gatekeep would love to hear your thoughts.
Building apps is the new starting a podcast
byu/builtforoutput inEntrepreneur
Posted by builtforoutput
4 Comments
this feels true on the surface but the problem isn’t apps, it’s undifferentiated apps. building got easy, distribution didn’t, so now everyone can create, but very few can get attention or solve something painful enough to get paid. also people don’t pay for generic tools, they pay for outcomes. an app that saves time, makes money, or removes a real headache still gets paid for, blue collar looks attractive because demand is obvious, but the same rule applies there too.
the edge isn’t the category, it’s how clearly you solve a problem people already care about
Partially agree, but I do push back on the framing a little, the apps that are dying are the ones built because building is easy, not because there was a really problem to solve. That is always been true. AI just accelerated how to fast people can ship something nobody asked for.
I’m building something right now. the difference I’m trying to make before writing a single line of code. I spent two weeks posting in communities, reading real replies, talking to actual people. The validation come first.
Apps aren’t the new podcast. Building without talking to user first is the new podcast.
The 0.001% that makes aren’t lucky. They just did the boring part that everyone skips.
The funniest part is half the replies to this post will be from people trying to sell you the tool they built to help you build apps faster. It’s apps all the way down. Meanwhile the plumber down the street is booked 3 weeks out making 200k and doesn’t even have a website
He is right !!