KeepSafe lets you take control of who sees what on your phone. Privacy is our main feature so we're an inherently non-social service. 12 months ago, we started at 0, today we have more than a million daily active users.
This is how we did it:
* Start with something the user cares about.
Instead of solving a big thing like "Privacy", we decided to start close to a specific user problem: keeping pictures private on the phone. By reducing it, we quickly realized that this was a crowded space with tons of apps that simply hide pictures. Bad, because of competition but a good indicator for what users care about.
* Throw out features
The fewer things your app can do, the more you can focus on making the user flows for the remaining features simple and easy to understand.
* Focus on retention
Growth is nice but we want users to come back. We were slow to build new features but always fast to release bug fixes and improvements to the core experience. In our case it was improving the speed for adding pictures to KeepSafe and the user flows for doing it. If you continuously improve, your userbase will notice and keep using your app.
* Speak a language your users understand
We have a large userbase in the US and other English speaking countries. But we invested in translating the app from the get-go. The smartphone penetration in countries like South Korea is really high and we see lots of users from Europe too. It's easy and it's fast if you use services like MyGengo.
* Ask your users for their opinion
When someone started to be a frequent user we simply asked them to rate us in the Android market. It has helped our ranking.
What is your experience and insights on growing your app?
KeepSafe has a fun and ambitious roadmap. If you want to join a mobile startup and have huge impact, take a look http://www.getkeepsafe.com/about.php#jobs
