Why indie developers can't win on the App Store

@nodemaker I think this raises some really interesting points. Based on my experience moderating an exclusive app entrepreneurs group on Facebook I have seen this come numerous times where an indie developer starts a post in frustration complaining how he needs a huge marketing budget to go up in the ranks on App Store. I hope either Tapdaq or somethings else can provide an effective solution for this problem.

>Overall, King.com spends over $350k (Source: King.com) a day on mobile ads and it can be assumed that the other 4 developers have ad budgets within this range.

I have said this other places, but I will repeat it here. Kudos to them for finding (or creating) a successful niche with high demand. I find it sad though that sooo much money is going to marketing games that don't push technology further, or really fundamentally help things get better.

You could argue that if you add up all the marginal increases in utility/happiness that are gained from playing any of the saga games that it might be a net gain, but I think that is a stretch. I find it tragic that this is how the market allocates resources (time and capital).

I don't see this topic as being any different than any other business pursuit. As a general rule, it takes money to make money. The very pervasive and (extremely) unlikely perception that your company can "make it" overnight just by building something well only holds those companies back. Create a solid business plan, building a product that is "good enough" and backing it up with a marketing budget has been a tried and true method for decades. The perception is only further deformed by what we see in the media (Instagram being sold for billions, SnapChat being wooed, the Twitter IPO, etc). The quicker you realize that it's harder than a cold day in hell, the quicker you'll pick your business idea off of the ground and make something based on a smart business plan.

The problem is the ranking- and discovery system. If you are not on any of the charts, you won't be seen. If you would remove the charts, and find some other recommendation system, it might give small app companies a chance, instead of being only about the $$$.

> I would not bet against this. I've heard this, and worse...