Two days ago, I wrote about Crapto.com, regardless the weird name for this costumer-based-service or business chances (income) that possible to reach by this service, another question is spinning in my mind after reading some comments about this service on DS article or from other media, also when i’m thingking about other services that i’ve reviewed.
The question also came up after a discussion with some of my friends, at the office or in my community who work around startup. The question is; Should a project, startup, or new service (especially costumer-based-service), focus on the perfect monetizing? Or should it focus on the users growth?
In some competition, pitching and startup demo, or selection process by investors or incubators, as far as I concern, they often ask “How about the monetizing?” “How will you get the income?”.
Those questions actually emerge another question; Does the monetizing means the strategy to get money that should be planned completely or just another question to ask you how to get income? The answers for those questions can be quite different, although the aims remain the same. A complete monetizing strategy, I think, hasn’t been needed by a startup when they begin to introduce their service. It needs more strategies on how to get users from the service released.
One of my friend, who has many experiences in internet industry, stated clearly a question about monetizing for a new startup: “How will you get the income if you don’t have any users?”
This question means that in the beginning, startups should focus on the users’ growth, after that they may start to think about the monetizing. Monetizing can be prepared in the beginning, but what does it means if no user on it? Focusing on users can emerge some chances that can be different from the prepared plans.
It cannot be applied for all services, but most of them are possible to do so. As written previously, this strategy can be appropriate for costumer-based-service which placing the users as asset. This service will be meaningless without any users.
The monetizing strategy, off course, can be arranged in the beginning. However, it does not need to arrange it completely in the starting point. Don’t put it as the main focus as well. Take the users growth as the focus. The resource for startup is, commonly, limited, except startup with big capitalization. How to make the service interesting and used simultaneously by users? How to make users engaged to the service? How to make the service interesting and giving value for a certain period of time? That are some question that need to be answered.
Income model can change by the time being during the development of the startup. For example, it is planned to use freemium, but by the time being, it is known that this strategy doesn’t work well. Can you imagine if all resources have been spent for this? Other chances will be missed.
Focus on users’ growth, in fact, will open some other chances. What you need to do is to listen others’ opinion, feed back, even cursing from users. It will help you to form your product or service as needed by users. Having collaboration with other services is also possible to open more chances.
It is a matter of focus and priority. The main idea of getting income can be arranged in the beginning, but the focus to get users should be the main priority.
That’s my opinion. How do you think?
