What does the App Store mean for your application?

CITY OF MEXICO (Expansion) –

Maybe they're not the Uber or the Mexican Facebook; However, these national mobile apps have found their niche and have managed to exploit it.

These Engagement Levels are among the reasons why, in the past decade, Mexican names have been among the most downloaded apps on the App Store, both on the App Store and Google Play In addition to this has contributed to the growth of the economy of applications in the country, which in late 2017 has placed Mexico as the second largest territory with more downloads in Latin America, according to eMarketer consultant.

And although currently the dominant operating system in Mexico is Android, a decade ago, Apple launched the first platform to market this type of software with App Store, and for many developers Mexicans who have experienced this transition, the existence of this format has facilitated the fact that today they still have a case or simply made them believe that their idea was plausible.

10 years ago, what did the App Store mean for your startup?

"Changed forever the operation of all and the idea of ​​creating business through this new platform," recalls Álvaro Velasco, co-founder of SkyAlert, one of the Mexican apps with the best positioning dedicated to reporting on earthquakes. .

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In new businesses that could be realized with a platform that distributes software to users, Velasco warns that what the # The biggest difference was the mbadive scale that they could achieve. "For us, it meant thinking about companies that were very different from what we had, because for the first time we thought mbadively, with technologies that, years later, would be in everyone's hands," says the director. remembers personally , have downloaded the recommended games as their first applications in this first model of iPhone in 2008.

Manuel Villegas, founder and CEO of Capptu, an application that allows users to sell their photos to companies and agencies for campaigns, matches also in that "the possibility of having a global scale" was the added value that the App Store brought to the table.

"Yes, I think that there is a before and after of these types of stores.It was a model that made us think on a global scale, not thinking of a business just for Mexico, but thinking to reach as many people as possible, that they are on the other side of the world.What it gives you is a global reach, "says who is described as" ex godin " And who personally these digital models allowed him to leave the business environment after eight years of work in different companies.

In the case of Capptu, Villegas warns that the platform of Apple was more relevant because it is focused on users, mainly, iPhone users, happy with the design and photography.

"We first launched on iOS then on Android . Apple was more natural in our case because of the type of application and users who dedicate themselves or love photography, "he explains.

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This app was part of the Telefónica Wayra acceleration process, in 2015 and was placed in the top 10 of the starter competition , IBM Smartcamp, San Francisco. To date, Capptu has 170,000 downloads, of which 43% come from iOS and 144,000 unique registered users.

With these two applications, another of the first Mexican applications that managed to top the downloads was the Taco Master mobile game, developed by Kaxan Studios, a Jalisco studio run by Ricardo Gómez who, in mid-2011 , was the most downloaded paid application on the Apple platform. Months later, they closed an investment of $ 9 million.

Expansión was looking for Gómez, but was not available for comment at the time of publication of this note; However, according to his Twitter account, he is currently working as president of the Association of Latin American Industrialists.

To date, Taco Master is no longer available for download in the App Store.

Faced with the future of the App Store, the company Apple has unveiled, in 2017, the kit for developers to experience augmented and virtual reality, the l & # 39; one of the formats that Mexican entrepreneurs see as a new frontier.

"The more people there are on the mobile, the more businesses are added and things like AR and VR are what we see as a future challenge in our case as well as the pace of business. innovation in which companies evolve. "updates," says Capptu's director.

Velasco warns that another of the things that they have recently benefited from in the model are the adjustments to subscription renewals and personalization , that they expect to continue.

"We believe that applications will be even more customizable for each user, deciding which applications should stay active even in night mode, to more categories in the store , like applications for "emergencies" or others, "says Velasco.