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The prevailing "business person" thought is that app users are more loyal (high value) while web users are temporary users that Google will eventually steal awa
by ageitgey 8y ago
The prevailing "business person" thought is that app users are more loyal (high value) while web users are temporary users that Google will eventually steal away from you when they decide they want to be in your market and want to stop putting you at the top of search result pages. See Yelp's decline as Google started putting their own local results above Yelp and the resulting lawsuits.
As a result, most Silicon Valley product managers are trained to think that websites are nothing more than the top of a funnel to eventually convert low-value search engine users into high-value app users. Once you realize this, almost every stupid thing websites do suddenly makes sense. They will do almost anything possible to grow app installs even if it makes the website nearly useless.
Sure, it's terrible if you care about the web and user experience. But most PMs only stick around a company for 1-2 years and they'd rather be able to show a hockey stick graph of "high value" app user growth to get promoted or get a new job then worry about what makes for a good user experience.
- martinald 8y agoAgreed. This is a great analysis. Also keep in mind if the funnel thinks web users are low value and app users are high value, if web users fall it is a sign that the strategy is working. Not that you have loads of annoyed users.
- gowld 8y agoIt's not the PMs being rogue evil; they (and the engineers) are serving their employers faithfully. Another reason is that a local app can spy on you more (track your location, for example) to collect data to sell, harass you with notification spam, and display non-blockable ads.
- OkGoDoIt 8y agoI think the non-blockable ads is a big one. In my browser Facebook has no ads, the app on my phone is full of them.
- RankingMember 8y agoYep. Another more recent example is Venmo. Since Paypal acquired them, they've been steadily removing functionality from the website to force users onto the app.
- rsync 8y agoAnother good example is Sonos ... they are slowly letting their desktop application die to force users onto iOS or android apps. In the case of Sonos, it is much darker and user hostile because there is no danger of "web consumers being siphoned off by google" - you have to buy the Sonos components anyway. In this case it is all about metadata and traffic and user profiling.
- Thlom 8y agoI barely ever use the Sonos app on either iOS or desktop. I just use Spotify or Apple Music and route music to Sonos from there, so not sure if you are correct. With AirPlay2 I only use the app to set up new speakers. So not sure if you are correct. e: Most likely the desktop app has seen declining usage the last decade, which is why Sonos doesn't prioritize it.