How to Monetize Mobile Gaming Apps Without Churning Users
Remember Angry Birds? Then you probably also remember the annoying, repetitive ads for the ill-fated Windows Phone. Angry Birds was easily one of the biggest mobile app development stories ever, but the story might be different if they’d launched today instead. Today’s users are much more averse to blatant advertising — particularly among gamers, some […]
Facebook Algorithm Change Is Opportunity for Digital Brands
Facebook recently made another major update to their News Feed algorithm, penalizing news sources responsible for headlines like “You’ll Never Look At Your Friends The Same… Once You’ve Searched This Site!” For many brands on Facebook, updates to the algorithm spell disaster. Impressions on existing page fans are at an all-time low, and Facebook is […]
I Have an App Idea: What Do I Do Next?
Think about this for a second: Apple has twice as many credit cards on file as Amazon, to the tune of well over 800 million accounts. That’s a ton of opportunity waiting to be tapped. …Does that mean your app idea is worth 800 million dollars? Not necessarily. Ideas get a bad rap in the startup […]
Bots on Kik Pass the 20,000 Mark: How Will This Affect Apps?
While there are just over 100 bots actually featured in the much-publicized Kik Bot Shop, developer on the platform have created well over 20,000 to-date. The catch: most of these bots are invite-only, accessible only through direct invite from creators. That said, major brands like CNN and Funny or Die have embraced the platform. Kik’s explosive […]
How to Guess Startup Success Without Knowing What They Do
Yahoo’s $4.8 billion sale to Verizon in recent months has drawn the eyes of the tech community. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is bearing the brunt of that attention, but you’d never know it from a recent Bloomberg Businessweek interview. In conversation, Mayer seemed confident and relaxed about the huge changes to the company, and the […]
Baidu Betting Big on Augmented Reality as Mainstream Feature
Baidu has announced that they’ll soon be launching DuSee, an augmented reality platform, to join their fleet of mobile services. While Baidu’s image recognition software is known for being somewhat rough around the edges and early previews of DuSee have some rough edges of their own, the fact that a major Chinese company is launching […]
Mobile Tech for Elderly Users Is a Huge Startup Opportunity
If you’ve ever tried to walk your grandparents through the basics of using an iPad or iPhone, then you know getting elderly users is an uphill battle. Smartphones are simple to those of us who started using them as young people, but the basics of mobile app usage are as mysterious to older users as […]
Video Could Be the next Disruptive Force in Mobile Ecommerce
MikMak, a video shopping service for mobile, just closed a $3.2 million seed round — and it’s got the attention of mobile app developers looking for the “next big thing” in ecommerce trends. Since launching last year, the disruptive app has gained an impressive following among younger demographics through a blend of custom content and […]
What Are the Alternatives to SMS Codes for Digital Security?
Well, it’s happened — the hackers have gotten into the text messages. According to a new report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, SMS codes are no longer sufficiently safe for use in two-factor authentication. This is big news for web and app developers alike, as the symbiotic relationship between our phones and […]
Startups Increasingly Tackling Policy and Social Issues
Sidewalk labs (an Alphabet subsidiary) is proposing to build Columbus, Ohio’s public transportation from scratch. Y Combinator is researching what it’ll take to build a city from a blank slate. Artificial islands, far from futurist fantasies, are very real undertakings being pursued by billionaires of the tech industry to create “havens” for innovation. What3Words is […]