档案库 · 开发与企业工具 · 产品决策 · 2012
Appifier 押注WordPress站长愿为原生iPhone应用付费
他放弃咨询工作,向WordPress站长销售原生iPhone应用:Appifier于2012-01-11登顶Hacker News,服务器不堪重负。
Appifier
做的是什么生意
Appifier turned WordPress sites into native iOS apps: a WordPress plugin exposed site content as JSON, and Appifier rendered it in a native app with push notifications, offline reading, and App Store distribution, sold on one-time or monthly plans.
启动资金:Self-financed: the founder left a consulting job paying over $80k a year and funded development with short-term iOS and WordPress consulting gigs.
起因
Mike (gozman), a software engineer who added an MBA and worked in management consulting, quit a job paying over $80k a year at 28 to build his own product, funding the build with short-term iOS and WordPress consulting. He said the idea came from small-business owners building WordPress sites who kept asking how to get onto the 'app store' — everyone wanted an app nowadays — so Appifier filled that niche.
经过
On 2012-01-11 gozman posted the launch to Hacker News under 'I quit my high-paying job to follow my dream of launching a startup.' The post reached #1 on the front page, and the marketing VPS could not take the load; he redirected traffic to the Heroku-hosted app engine while WPEngine offered a free migration and a year of hosting as a case study. Early users hit sandbox crashes, and the thread's central worries were Apple's App Store rule against apps that are simply web sites bundled as apps, template-app rejection, and cheaper WPTouch-style alternatives.
还没有结局,它还在跑。
背景
Mike(gozman)是一名软件工程师,后获得MBA并从事管理咨询,28岁时辞去年薪超过8万美元的工作,试图实现创业梦想,并表示如果做不成生意,他会回去上班。灵感来自那些在WordPress上数字化的中小企业主,他们不断询问如何上“App Store”——人人想要应用——因此Appifier旨在为任何WordPress网站提供原生iOS应用。
该产品包括一个WordPress插件,将网站内容以JSON格式暴露,以及一个原生应用来渲染内容,并支持推送通知、离线阅读和沙盒预览。创始人通过短期iOS和WordPress咨询项目资助开发,定价中包含一次性买断和月费选项——评论者指出一次性收费在该领域罕见。
2012-01-11,发布帖子在Hacker News登顶,获得342分和191条评论,流量立刻导致营销网站崩溃;WPEngine提供免费迁移和一年托管作为案例研究,同时gozman将用户导向Heroku托管的应用。帖子中最尖锐的警告是苹果禁止仅为网站包装的应用,以及模板应用被拒的风险,WPTouch等类似服务被视为更便宜的竞争。
这件事要成立,得有什么
- 触发点来自观察到的需求而非技术直觉:WordPress站长想要他们原本无法负担的应用,因此Appifier出售成果——上架App Store的应用。
- 发布当天市场可见:2012-01-11,在HN首页排名第一,获342分和191条评论,流量足以让营销网站宕机。
- JSON插件驱动原生UI,支持推送、离线阅读和实时换肤,这使其区别于免费的WPTouch式移动主题和简单的WebView包装。
- 整个业务依赖于苹果的审核政策——仅将网站打包成应用和对模板应用可能被拒——这一依赖在帖子当天就被指出。
可借鉴之处
卖成果,不卖技术:“人人都想要应用”是一个有预算的利基市场,即使包装网站看似简单;真正的风险在于苹果的审核规则和模板被拒。
后续进展
截至2012-01-11,Appifier已上线:应用引擎运行在Heroku上,营销网站逐渐恢复,创始人在帖子中回应bug报告,WPEngine已提供免费迁移和托管。该批次材料到此结束,后续采用情况、定价或苹果审核结果未记录。
资料来源
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