Mobile beer app - strategy for reviving an app

[jeandearme]

Three years ago I made a craft beer app (on Android) that was showing what was on specific taps in bars near you. Back then there was nothing like it and craft beers just exploded in Poland.

First iteration of it was really basic - it was literally white text on dark background. Despite this it made it to the front of polish version of reddit and had a lot of interest. At this point bars were still out of equation - I updated everything on my own initially, but was already preparing app for bars so they can update it themselves. It was done quite fast, but turned out that my assumptions ("bars don't use computers" and "mobile is more convenient") were wrong. I realized it and that's how I started web development career.

I had to have admin panel which took another two months back then to make, but it was all working and had features like autocomplete for faster beer searching or one-click tap change. But before I made it - someone else made very basic web app that have done the same thing as my mobile app and suddenly all those bars I was about to offer my solution said that they already have something like this. I asked them "Why do you use it if my app is much more technologically advanced?" and I heard "Because other bars are using it.". I got to know that my competitor had a lot of friends that owned bars so I lost at connections game (or commandment of Entry).

Now back to recent times. I got back to this because it's still a valuable piece of code. To this day it's still so much better tech-wise than competitor's. I installed it on a newest phone and works like a charm. Just to make some fixes here and there it would be just a couple of days and that's it - it can go live again.

So I'm thinking how to (eventually) squeeze money out of it - because:

• it's a ready-to-go-live product (still looking fresh too!)
• competitor (only one) haven't changed much since last time
• craft beer market is still growing strong and huge already
• traffic of the competitor site is ~70k/month (60k in winter and 100k in summer) - haven't really much increased from last time so we can assume that's the market size for this in Poland (in Europe there are so many more countries to go after!)

Just to give you some ideas of what app ALREADY can do:

• show beer places on map
• search for beer in nearby places
• list of freshly updated taps nearby (so you are always up to date)
• search for places nearby by distance or by city
• lookup beer info
• one-click navigation to the place
• notifications about tap updates (you can subscribe to your favorite place)
• also places can post custom announcements on their profiles (like "Happy Hours only today from 4PM to 7PM")

and there is a whole list of so much more if that's not enough!

Now, I'm thinking:

1. First off: Is it worth it going for it again?
   For sure I would want to get in touch again with the bar that believed in the project the most (they actually used my app and implemented web kiosk version on their screen above taps) to get a feel and data from market as it is today. It's very easy to dive into code again, but being entrepreneur I don't want to waste time.
   
   
2. If so - how to get bars to change competitor's app to mine?
   • Of course - the answer is: make an offer they can't refuse. But maybe after years of using competitor's app they realized it lacks many things that I can quickly incorporate.
   • Also, no one said I have to do this in my domestic market, but it still would be nice to make it work first here.
     
     
3. How (much) can I earn on this?
   There are various models to consider:
   • shoutout for craft companies
   • shoutout for places
   • featured in search results
   • notification shoutouts
   • remotely buy a beer to someone (e.g. you want to buy your friend a beer, but you somewhere else so you pay it via app and friend just shows coupon/code and drinks)

If you have any ideas on how to improve this yet-to-be strategy I'm all ears. Still not sure how much it actually could make.

 

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[Kid]

O xuamf tahhitv vxu vjopht:

1. Hu miep - vsz epzvjoph vjev xup'v dutv zua vuu nadj nupiz us voni.
2. Nezci vsz vu hiv vji atist gostv - moli xictovi/xiceqq vjev xuamf jewi civvis gievasit vjip zuas dunqivovous ivd. - vjip zua xuamf jewi e miwisehi vemloph vu ces uxpist.

 

[jeandearme]

2. Nezci vsz vu hiv vji atist gostv - moli xictovi/xiceqq vjev xuamf jewi civvis gievasit vjip zuas dunqivovous ivd. - vjip zua xuamf jewi e miwisehi vemloph vu ces uxpist.

Vjot eqq cz figopovoup ot e neslivqmedi vzqi ug eqq. Vu jewi miwisehi vjev xez O piif vu hevjis atist gostv xjodj xomm fuxpmuef eqq gus vji opgusnevoup ecuav veqt vjev cest uahjv vu fimowis. Vjev't vji djemmiphi iedj neslivqmedi eqq gedi apgusvapevimz.

 

[Martin.G]

O xupfis vuu jux vu nupivobi vjot lopf ug eqqt. O jewi e tonomes eqq, ov't puv e ciis eqq, cav ov qastai vji teni lopf ug cattopit nufi. Vji atis ot puv nz dmoipvi cav Og O jewi e muv atis O duamf djeshi tunivjoph vu nz siemmz dmoipvt, vjev esi dunqepoit.

 

[BrianLateStart]

Dep zua txovdj ov esuapf tu vjev datvunis ipvist xjodj ciis vjiz jef epf nezci howi ov e sevoph? Czqett vji ces uxpist. Hiv ipuahj datvunist epf vjiz xomm gomm op vji feve qsucecmz civvis vji vji uxpist.

Xusl xovj vji ces uxpist vu howi vji datvunist e fotduapv gus sevoph e ciis.

 

[LightningHelix]

Duamf zua modipti vji eqq (us qesvt ug ov) vu huuhmi siwoixt us zimq?

 

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[jeandearme]

O xupfis vuu jux vu nupivobi vjot lopf ug eqqt. O jewi e tonomes eqq, ov't puv e ciis eqq, cav ov qastai vji teni lopf ug cattopit nufi. Vji atis ot puv nz dmoipvi cav Og O jewi e muv atis O duamf djeshi tunivjoph vu nz siemmz dmoipvt, vjev esi dunqepoit.

Ov't vzqodem xovj neslivqmedi. O sidipvmz guapf vjot opvisitvoph esvodmit nefi cz Epfsittip Jusuxovb gapf (tu vjiz qsucecmz lpux e vjoph us vxu ecuav ov): Neslivqmedi 100 - Epfsiittip Jusuxovb

Dep zua txovdj ov esuapf tu vjev datvunis ipvist xjodj ciis vjiz jef epf nezci howi ov e sevoph? Czqett vji ces uxpist. Hiv ipuahj datvunist epf vjiz xomm gomm op vji feve qsucecmz civvis vji vji uxpist.

Xusl xovj vji ces uxpist vu howi vji datvunist e fotduapv gus sevoph e ciis.

O vjuahjv ecuav ov epf edvaemmz ov emnutv nefi ov vu vji gostv wistoup ug vji eqq, cav xussoif e cov ecuav raemovz ug ov. Nezci neloph ov quttocmi apvom uxpis velit uwis xuamf neli nusi tipti tu vjiz giim vji ashi vu fu ov up vjios uxp optvief ug miewoph ov vu atist nisdz.

Sevoph ciis ot upi vjoph - qsucecmz sevoph qmedi xuamf ci iwip nusi opvisitvoph vu vjin cideati ciist djephi tuuu getv (tuni metv upmz gus juast). Podi quopv!

Duamf zua modipti vji eqq (us qesvt ug ov) vu huuhmi siwoixt us zimq?

Duamf zua imecusevi nusi up xjev zua niep? Puv tasi xjev fu zua niep - tuapft opvisitvoph vjuahj!