25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market

Next steps for my software dev company would definitely be branching out into new markets and embracing new technologies or techniques in order to stand out and become a leader in our industry. Using the capital raised by this current project we may look to use the data collected from our user base and create another application in order to fill the needs that result of the use of our current application.

Interviews:

1.     The first person I interviewed said that we should try and implement some sort of social media compatibility with our application in order to appeal to the younger demographic it is currently targeting. They also seemed to be receptive to the idea of the company moving in other directions to solve problems users face that may come up during the use of our current application.

2.     The second-person also mention connectivity with other applications. They mentioned that they like when applications are able to interface with each other and that ours should be able to. I mentioned our goal of using new technologies in order to stand out and they suggested trying to add AI in some way to make the app more cutting edge.

3.     The third person I interviewed suggested that we try and build up our app, so it becomes as good as it gets so that we build a loyal user base then try and branch out. They were interested in the idea of our company developing new applications but also went back and stated that we need to build up our users first before moving on to the next project.

Reflection:

What was very apparent from the interviews with people 18-25 was that they value social media and applications that are able to interface with their favorite social media platforms. With that in mind, one route forward might be to explore the capabilities of our app and find a way for it to interface with a popular social media like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat. Social media is super important to this specific demographic so being able to use that to our advantage would be a big opportunity.

Realistically, it would be a big departure from our core functionality, but it might yield great results. As mentioned by one of the interviewees, people like when they can use different apps together or just in general have an app that can interface with others so it might be the right direction to move in.

New Market

The logical opposite to targeting youth would be to target the older part of the population. So, this new market would be individuals 40 and up who no longer are young and able to go out constantly but still want the benefits of using our application. These individuals usually have a higher income and more disposable income making them more inclined to spend money and not care about looking for deals or specials. We might have to adapt by targeting activities older people like to do and include that in our functionality

Interviews:

1.     The first person I interviewed suggested taking an approach similar to Groupon. By emphasizing coupons for activities older people would like more or would be more inclined to do it might grow that part of the user base. They also mentioned focusing more on restaurants for older users instead of clubs and bars.

2.     The second-person I interviews said that I could expand into providing information on other businesses not just bars, clubs and entertainment venues. They suggested offering users information about deals happening at department stores or grocery stores instead of businesses related to nightlife.

Reflection:

While they may not be the target demographic of my application, these two individuals did come up with some good alternatives that might be very appealing to people 40 and older that would still like to use my application. While I value their input, I also feel that their ideas are a bit out of the scope of what was originally planned for the application. I have a unique outlook because I know what young people want out of my app because I fit into the demographic. Trying to adapt our app to reach users outside of our target demographic could cause us to lose focus and not cater to the people that we originally built the app for.

I would say that the older market did look promising, but it might not be as profitable or lucrative as it could have been had our application not been so focused on a younger user base. I think that in order to get the number of users that we want and the amount of constant interaction and use times we would have to stick with the 18-25 age group, as they are the group that would most benefit from our application and the services it provides.