Exploring a new Action Launcher business model
To be entirely upfront, Action Launcher’s 2018 revenue was down more than a third from its 2017’s level. By no means is Action Launcher teetering on the brink of existence, but such a steep drop-off in revenue is very meaningful for any business. My indie development company is no different.
Action Launcher’s revenue decline can be attributed to a few key factors, but the chief one is an inescapable flaw in the app’s business model. Action Launcher makes >95% of its revenue by attracting new users and having a percentage of them opt to buy the one-time, sub $7 Plus in-app upgrade. This business model relies on continually attracting a high number of new users. Conversely, the vast majority of successful software businesses in 2019 rely on generating ongoing revenue from existing customers.
Over the years, Action Launcher has experimented with generating additional revenue from its existing customers. Most successful has been the annual Supporter Pack — a ‘tip jar’ style in-app purchase long-time Action Launcher customers can opt to make to support ongoing development. Whilst every single Supporter Pack sale over the years has been appreciated, the revenue generated remains very small.
Shoring up Action Launcher’s future
The boring reality is that to ensure Action Launcher continues to improve, grow and thrive going forward, the app’s overall financial performance needs a bump. The clearest path towards this goal is reliably generating ongoing revenue from existing customers.
Which brings us to Action Web Search, a feature debuting with Action Launcher v40.
The business of search
One needs only glance at Google’s success to understand that monetizing search queries is rather large business. As it happens, Action Launcher’s in-app search box widget generates a non-trivial number of search queries each day.
The newly introduced Action Web Search feature sees searches triggered in the app following the Google route of occasionally displaying relevant ads alongside search results.
The hope is that Action Web Search’s ads will both prove helpful & relevant to users, and will generate additional revenue for Action Launcher. In turn, this will allow me to not just maintain Action Launcher’s current development pace and outlays, but invest more resources to develop and improve the app.
Action Search with Google or DuckDuckGo
Action Search is available to all Action Launcher users, whether they’ve previously bought the one-time Plus upgrade or not. The ‘price’ so to speak of using Action Search is that queries that are not for your apps, contacts or an Action Launcher or system setting are displayed via the custom Action Web Search results page or Bing (which offers an affiliate program).
It’s certainly reasonable for users to want to use Action Search to process queries in Action Launcher, but send any searches destined for the web to Google rather than Action Web Search.
Action Launcher v40 allows users to do exactly this. However, doing so does require a purchase of the $4.99 2019 Supporter Pack (as opposed to Action Launcher’s Plus upgrade, which is typically what unlocks Action Launcher’s premium features).
Understanding why
We fully anticipate some will be confounded by the decision to not allow ever-valued Action Launcher Plus customers to send Action Search web queries to Google.
I certainly have great sympathy for this position. Yet I encourage any such people to recognize the inescapable reality that apps need ongoing revenue to survive, improve and flourish. There’s plenty of examples of apps employing shady, user hostile, or privacy violating tactics (or worse) to try and generate this revenue.
Action Search and its configuration options represents the culmination of a year-long effort to generate the additional revenue required to secure and grow Action Launcher going forward in a helpful, responsible and privacy conscious manner.
As feature strong as ever
To be clear, Action Search takes nothing away from Action Launcher’s existing (and ever-valued) Plus or non-Plus customers.
Plus (and non-Plus) users alike who wish to use pre-Action Launcher v40’s functionality of having searches triggered via the in-app search box go directly to Google without using the new Action Search feature can of course still do that.
And of course there’s nothing preventing users from using Action Search with Action Web Search, and additionally configuring Google to load directly via a gesture, search bar or desktop shortcut.
Not the new normal
It’s possible long-time Action Launcher Plus customers will form the impression that future Action Launcher features will all require the annual Supporter Pack. This is not the plan. Action Search is unique in that it both took so long to develop, and has an obvious means of recouping its development investment via Action Web Search.
Ending on a high
Since Action Launcher’s 2012 introduction, a great many exciting features have been introduced. Covers, Shutters, the customizable search bar, and the material design overhaul and releasing a version of Pixel Launcher before Pixel Launcher and are but some of the highlights.
It’s my genuine hope that Action Search will prove to both be a feature similarly beloved by users, and a key pillar in securing Action Launcher’s ongoing future.
Got questions and comments? I’m always listening on Twitter (my DMs are open).
