If you're vibecoding a B2C app, I’m probably more invested in your success than 99.99% of people out there

(@RevenueCat only makes money when you make money)

But time for a little reality check

I'm doing career day for a bunch of high-schoolers on Friday

Was thinking of just showing them how to start an app business

Do I have any teen app developer customers I could feature in my deck?

App Lifters workout. Coming to an App Growth event near you

Hybrid monetization (aka ‘mixed monetization’) was THE topic during @RevenueCat's New York App Week

Which makes sense, because a lot of the hard vs soft paywall conversation is still stuck on “which converts more users into paying subscribers?”

Useful question, but a pretty ut your business

If the only way to use your app is to subscribe for $10/month, you’re doing two things:

1️⃣ Restricting your audience to people who are willing AND able to pay for a subscription right now

That’s a fraction of the people who might enjoy your app, get value from it, and generate revenue for you

Someone who won’t subscribe might happily watch an ad, make a small purchase, or become a subscriber later

With a hard paywall, you lose the opportunity to find out

2️⃣ Giving everyone the same spending decision

The person who’d happily spend $3 gets turned away, while the person who’d happily spend $50 has no reason or opportunity to spend more than $10

Fewer revenue-generating users at one end, less revenue from your highest-intent users at the other

I’ve been calling this “dropping the floor and raising the ceiling”

It’s what I’m talking about when you see me wildly gesturing up and down at a conference

@philgcarter talks about this a lot, and calls it capturing value along the demand curve

Either way: your audience isn’t a monolith, so why give everyone exactly one way to pay you?

Games have been doing this forever: ads, rewarded ads, currencies, one-time purchases, subscriptions, season passes

Those options work together

Watch an ad to keep playing, buy something you actually want, subscribe because you’re coming back every day

You can start generating revenue from someone long before they’re ready to subscribe, and offer more value to people who want to spend more

Short-drama apps are a very visible example of this today (and, after AI agents, the only category to meaningfully break into the top 100 grossing apps in YEARS)

Free episodes get you invested, then you can watch ads, buy coins to unlock more, or subscribe

In our short-drama analysis, median install-to-payer conversion by day 35 was 5.5%, versus 1.6% for other Entertainment apps

First-month revenue per payer was $23.85 versus $13.09

There’s a lot more going on here than ‘paywall optimization’

(If you ask me, paywalls will be irrelevant within a year or two, but that’s another post entirely)

It’s about finding WHAT each individual user is willing to pay for, and HOW they’re willing to pay

Then building customer journeys in your app that match those preferences

That won’t be a nice-to-have when your competitors are turning more users into payers AND making more money from them

Because they’ll use that revenue to outbid you in every user acquisition channel imaginable

Pretty soon, we’ll all need to:

👇 Drop the floor
☝️ Raise the ceiling

(PS. Let me know if you want me to share my favourite way to 'dip your toes' into mixed monetization: It doesn't require a massive overhaul of your app, and can be shipped in a few days, max!)

Keeping a list of everyone suggesting that Shipaton judging was off,

So @plahteenlahti can add them to the judging list for next year

Wonder how many folks will enjoy being on the other end of this 😅

Flight cancelled: Tired 👎

Extra day at Iron Oasis: Wired 💪

1. Top of funnel is bigger for freemium (you can acquire more users)

2. Freemium is better for mixed monetization (show some users ads, sell subs, sell one time purchases - maximizes % of the audience monetized and increases RPU for your most engaged users)

Go see this movie

Rowdiest I’ve seen a movie theatre in a while. Folks were screaming

That’s a wrap on App Week

If you were in NYC this week, I’d love to hear what you’d want to see (changed, improved, removed) next year, and any other feedback you might have

It’s honestly a little wild to see how much it’s grown since we pretty randomly made this up last year, been a good one for the community

Would love to hear how we can make it even better

The crossover we’ve all been waiting for

#newyorkappweek

A New York App Week special | Sub Club Live x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

#influencing #timesquare

gm @NewYorkAppWeek

iykyk

This was a very good time. Should make it a thing:

App Lifters

Setting up for @RevenueCat Times Square Demo Day featuring some amazing @Replit app founders!

Oh hey, there’s a @RevenueCat Shipaton tent up on Times Square

Tomorrow: Sub Club Live from New York , with a studio audience.

@drbarnard hosts in person with @AnadaLakra (BoldVoice). In the room, taking turns in the hot seat: @Thomasbcn, Ashley Black, Julian Pscheid and more of the App Growth Annual workshop hosts.

12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. CEST

Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=Ft1AQV…
Set your reminder: luma.com/vqf5d6sa

GROW. YOUR. APPS

@RevenueCat gamifying active subscribers is a real moat.
Thanks for the (very heavy) gift. 🫶🏻

Generational shift in app monetization:

It’s back!

#appgrowthannual