Hey this is the Daily Overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps. Now today I want
to ask how much is my app worth?
Okay, so today I want to answer a question that came in all the way back from episode 291 from Bart Raca, who said "Great video
Eric" -thanks - "could you please do one titled: How much is my app worth?" That's a
really good question. I thought this morning,
I read it this morning and I thought that's the one I want to
answer today. But then the more I started thinking about it, the more I wasn't
quite sure how to answer it. Of course there's two ways to think about the
worth of your application. There's the worth to your users,
and there's a worth to you. So to the users, how much you
should charge and everything, that's always an important thing, and you should
always be playing with the prices. Try to go high and see if you can still
make the same amount as you can. Like for me, and I know I've talked about this
before, but when I first released my paid app, my first paid app, it was like
99 cents because I figured that's what it's worth. But people were paying.
So now I think it's £2.99 or £3.99 so I was always just raising it
up, bringing it back down, raising it up and I get fewer downloads, fewer
purchases, but the revenue is slightly higher. It's kind of out around the same
point, so I've tried to bring it down a little bit to see if it goes up.
Try to bring it up a little bit, then it's too high, no one's buying it.
Try to bring it to low, lots of people are buying it but not making as much
money. So for me I think I found a really good price point for that, and
you should always be playing with with the price points on
that kind of stuff. For me, I think higher priced, less users - but but that's just me.
And then there's the other part of it - how much is
the app worth to you as a developer or worth to other developers. Like, if
someone was gonna buy the source code in the brand and everything
from you, how much is it worth? Now, every so often I get contacted by someone who
wants to buy ear spy. They want to buy the code and they want to buy the
application itself. So, the thing is, I wish I could just dig
my heels in and I say it's not for sale. But, I'll listen.
If they're gonna talk Google numbers you know, I'll listen. But it's
usually like they'll say I'll spend $5,000 or something on it, and I'll
say - it makes a few thousand a month so it's worth more than that
to me and and everything like that. Plus I've been working really hard
on it. But the thing is, even the apps that are under-performing, if
somebody was gonna offer to pay me that much for them, I would probably still not
sell it, because to me I still think they're gonna take on. I have
more invested in it, so they're worth more to me than they
would be to somebody else. Somebody else would buy it, say ah it's not doing well and they
would just move on to the next thing. I still have hope. I might be
naive considering how crowded the app
market is, but I just think they're late bloomers, they just haven't
taken off yet. So always still working on those kind of
stuff. It makes you think a lot about how much is the
code worth, and how much is the application worth, because
when you look at something like code Canyon or Chupamobile, these
places where you just go by code and reskin it and rerelease
it - you can buy code for like $50 or $90 or whatever it is, $20, and just
reskin it and release it and so, you know, pretty good. And a lot of times it's
like a clone of an actual game that's really making a lot
of money, but the code is not worth that much. It's funny when
you think about it. See, a lot of clients that I talk to, they're really
worried about security. I mean, as you would be. You know, they don't
want anyone stealing their code, like I wouldn't want anyone stealing my code.
It's a standard thing, but when we said we outsource things,
one of the questions I always get is 'how do I know they're not just
gonna take my code and release it on their own?' And one of the things I have
to say is, it's not just the code, it's the it's the brand, it's getting
behind it and pushing it and everything like that. I used to make this
analogy when I was talking to clients and say that if somebody came to you and
they gave you a cd-rom or DVD or whatever it was, and they had all
the source code for Facebook and they were able to just hand it over to you
and say - here's Facebook, you could release your own Facebook now and you
got that, how much would you pay for it because to me it would be worth
nothing because Facebook is more than just the code. It's the brand and it's
the the notoriety and you know, when I think about when I released
this app it wasn't just the app and the code and the icon and the artwork,
whatever, it's also all those years of trying to get people to find it.
Tweaking this and that and the other thing, and all the hours
put into it, all the hopes and dreams and, you know, we need to make this stuff work.
And I put the same amount of work into other apps that haven't really taken off,
but I haven't given up on them yet. But there's all this stuff behind it.
I like to think that, sometimes you think if you had a time
machine and you went back and you just went I've found a time machine and I went
back to 2002, I would start Facebook but it's not that easy.
It had to be the right person at the right time, in the right place, all that kind of stuff. So that's why I'm not quite sure
how to answer 'what my app is worth?' If I was a real true proper businessman and
you know, I've talked about my insecurities there before. If I was a true
proper businessman, I'm sure I would have some sort of algorithm or whatever. I'd
be able to tell you "it's worth this much" based on how much revenue it makes,
all this kind of stuff, but to me it's just worth a lot. My apps
are worth more to me than they are to somebody else. Now, if somebody comes
and starts talking millions then - I'll bend. I'll
give in. But yeah for now, my apps worth a lot.
So let me ask you guys, how much are your apps worth? I suppose
if I was just doing reskinning, my apps wouldn't be worth a lot. I mean, I would
buy something for $100 or 100 pounds or whatever, and if it made 300 then
that would be good but if it didn't then it would be a
loss, and all this kind of stuff. But to me it's a lot more that goes into it and
there's also other intangible things
like when we do client work, a lot of that stuff it's just a
portfolio where it might not be doing a lot on the App Store's, but the
artwork and everything works well as a portfolio application. A lot of times
when I talk to clients I say "we've done a similar app to this" and I could point
to it, even though it might not have the downloads and everything that I
hoped it would at the time. So anyway Bart, I hope that helps a
little bit. I know it's not the greatest answer. Let me know, what
do you guys think? How much is your app worth? If
somebody came to you, what is the price that you would give it up for?
would you just say, as it's more than
I'm making now, or do you still, like me, do you still have
those hopes and dreams behind it and think no, this just hasn't taken off yet,
this is my baby, this is gonna work? So anyway that's it for today, I'll talk to
you guys tomorrow.