How do free apps make money? Some higher-level ways that apps are making money of you and some other people out there, well, not you, because I know you don’t fall for these things, are the obvious ones: ad-revenue. You know, those annoying little apps that you don’t you pretty much don’t ever click except by accident, and then you’re like, “Oh, gosh!,” and then you click the back button as quickly as possible.
Watch the video or read the transcription:
YouTube Videos Removedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSV6sTEdOvw]
Or get your audio / podcast going, too:
Podcast No Longer Available
There’s some annoying apps that I would hate to advertise on their apps. Like the alarm clock that I use. I love the alarm clock and I’d rather just buy it, but there’s an ad on the dismiss button. You really think I would ever, after waking up in the morning, want to click one of those ads, and you know how unhappy I would be when I do by accident? Oh my goodness.
OK. Other than that, there are in-app purchases, and that’s when, if you’re playing a game, you can go to the “special, super-duper, flappy-bird power-up,” whatever, “cheating the stage, candy crush something-or-other power-up,” and spend a buck or two bucks or five bucks or whatever.
There’s also the information capturing, which hopefully, you were made aware of when you were installing. That information can be shared with third parties, especially if it’s non-identifiable information like, your personal information is not clearly visible. They use that for running statistics and getting market research data, to better, hopefully, improve services and offering from there on out.
They also have, on that same note, the lead generation, where they’re taking your email, they’re putting you into a system to where your email, with your consent, is used as a way of communication for a line of products that is congruent with either the app you installed or things you signed up for along the way, hopefully you were paying attention to.
These are the major ways the free apps are making money. It’s almost solely based around either the action you take, the game theory of wanting instant gratification and trading your money for the time it would take to get their normally or your information exchange.
In that regard, none of the apps are free. If you’re giving information, that information has a value. It is you in digitized form. If you’re not worth anything, which I know you are worth a whole lot, then sure, it’s free. However, companies pay a ton of money for that information.
Think about that, the next time you’re using a free app or you’re thinking about using your own. There’s money to be had. Just because it says free on the outside doesn’t mean there’s something else on the inside. Be careful. Have a good one. Fling some birds around or something. Whatever you kids are playing these days.