When we first launched AppApp.io in October 2015, we had high hopes that we could launch a true alternative to the official App store search, supporting ways of searching that were never likely to fit Apple’s business models.
Hosting a search engine with 1,000,000 results is not a cheap exercise, and sadly we have never even reached the point through our affiliate link business model to even cover our hosting costs. We were on a trajectory to do so, but first Apple cut the affiliate fee from 7% to 2.5%, and then in October they cancelled the App Store affiliate program altogether.
This left us with a difficult decision; with no revenue stream we were never going to even pay our costs. Do we shut down altogether? Or do we pivot to something else that makes sense?
The germ of the idea behind AppApp.io was always to be able to find pay once games (games which are paid for, to reward the developer, but don’t charge in-app purchases once you have acquired the game), so we have decided to focus exclusively on that.
Going forwards, we will host a search for the 10,000 best pay once games in the App Store. This will let us significantly reduce our hosting costs (not to zero, but now it’s pocket money, not a sizeable bill each month), and lets us stay true to our original mission.
For those of our users who have grown to love AppApp.io (we know there are a few) we do apologise, and we hope you understand why we have taken this decision.
For those looking for pay once games, we hope our new focus makes the new service even more valuable.