CEO Interview: How Tappx Created An Entire Community To Promote Your Mobile App

In a world where the Internet and technology rule almost every aspect of our daily lives, marketing and advertising online is a must. However, this is not an easy task. Pop ups and spam have made this fleet quite difficult. Now with Tappx the game has changed. Last month, Tappx successfully hit their break-even mark and and show no plans of slowing down. But what is Tappx and how are they going to change the world of mobile advertising? We sat down with Daniel Reina, CEO of Tappx, to see how they’re creating an entire community to support your mobile app.

1. What problem does Tappx solve?

Due to all the apps and advertising in the web, acquiring visibility and increasing downloads has become more and more difficult for app developers if he or she does not dispose of a generous budget for marketing and advertising. There are more than 3 million apps in the web competing individually to be seen. Tappx solves this problem by creating a community in which all of its users help each other increase and promote each other’s apps.

Before Tappx launched our app, we experimented by cross promoting with other apps and received positive results. Due to these results we decided to create Tappx, to help hundreds of thousands of developers around the world.

Tappx works very simply, you promote other apps to receive Tappx credits and in exchange for these credits other members of the Tappx community promote your app. You can interchange advertising with apps on the first level such as Trivia Crack (Etermax), Soccer Runner (U-Play Online), or FMF2015 (From The Bench) and other great apps.

2. Tell us about the launch of your app, its users, and how fast your company has grown?

What surprised us the most was the gratitude we received from its users and how much they helped to spread the word in blogs and forums. Also, when we were still in beta phase our users gave us all types of advice and volunteered as beta testers. When you launch a product and you see positive responses from your clients it gives you the motivation to keep working hard to improve.

In a little more than a year we’ve had 3,300 registered users from 115 different countries and we are managing approximately 50 million prints per month, therefore we’ve had great growth results and every month the results are greater than the previous.

3. Talking about Tappx, how has the business model pivoted from its original model to what it is now?

We really haven’t pivoted much from the original model. When you integrate an app on Tappx, for every 100 prints of publicity that you show, 85 will be promoted and advertised in other apps in the community. Also, 15 users will show publicity of marketers that will pay us for it and this way we make profit. The remaining 15 prints are users showing publicity from marketers that pay us for this ad space, and this is how we make a profit.

4. What is the most important thing Wayra has contributed during your months in the incubator?

Many things. Just being one of the very few teams selected by Wayra adds value and reputation to our company. After all the help from Wayra’s team, its network of contacts, mentors, Talentum program, the possibilities of commerce with Telefónica, the offices, the events and without a doubt the money (haha), we’ve been able to advance Tappx’s growth.

5. After break-even, what plans do you have for the company’s growth?

To keep growing at a rapid pace! In short term we want to incorporate international talent in the Tappx team. At the same time we are talking to various investors to close a funding round that will allow us to accelerate the companies growth. If we find an investor that will double as a travel partner, we will do a round and if not, we will continue to do what we’re doing now doing now, bootstrapping. In fact, at the moment we have only obtained 80,000€ of private financing and that has been enough to reach break-even.

6. What are you the most proud of from Tappx over the 12 months?

The nicest thing I think has been the feeling of solving a common problem for so many people (developers, we’re people too –hahah-) with an idea. We faced the high cost of promoting an app and how demotivating that can be. So for us the idea of building a community of cross-promotion was groundbreaking. However launching it and walking the road through the break event wasn’t easy, but the encouragement and positive feedback from almost every developer we approached was always a big motivation for us. So this positive feedback from a whole community is what I’m most proud of.

If you’d like to learn more about Tappx or join their community of like-minded developers promoting each other’s apps, visit their website or contact the team directly here.