NYT article

Deleted due to paywall restrictions.

Well, no one can read it because it's behind a pay wall.

So sorry. Will delete.
Tushar

Well, I have a NYT subscription and appreciated the link. So I'll repost.

His Boating App Needed a Boost. His Daughter’s TikTok Audience Came Through. https://nyti.ms/3XMaJQf

Gist is a guy (a geek to be clear) develops a boating navigation app. He goes to a boatshow with his 20-something year old daughter. She does a quick tik-tok of him being ignored and it goes viral with 23m views and he hits paydirt with his app.

Actually looks like the app may be decent. Weather, routing, offline charts and future AIS will be available for subscription which is $20/year right now. If it catches on, could develop a social network to fill void left by nascent Active Captain, but that's speculative

Argo Navigation App. IPhone or Android. Decent features for free.

OP - thanks for the post.

Peter

I wonder how many of the 23M people who viewed the TikTok video are also boaters who would use the app? It triggered 190,000 downloads, which is 68% of the lifetime downloads of the app. Would those have been real boaters, or just people curious to see what all the fuss is about. I suspect the real value is from follow-on like the NYT article, then this discussion that brings it to people who might actually care. It's just interesting to see how these various forms of advertising work, don't work, how they work, and why they work. This one strikes me as "completely by accident". I think pretty much anything like this that goes viral is "by accident", but who wouldn't like the results. It's a bit like winning the lottery. You have no influence or control over the outcome, but happy to take the win if it comes your way. I recall a discussion with a Venture Capital guy many years ago who referred to this sort of thing as a "hits" business model, referencing the computer gaming industry. Some games become big hits and the company is successful, and others never take off and the company fails, with no way to influence or predict the outcome in advance.


Re ticktok and such things, it seems to me that the world is full of sounds. There is nostly noise (at least around people), some useful sounds, and a small bit is music. Marketing is all about emerging from the noise with sounds of music to the ears of the people you want to reach. On one hand the internet has provided unrepresented way to send your sounds to very select groups of people in hopes it will sound like music to them (popup ads for boats because Google sees you are looking at boat porn). This is generally viewed as better than just making your noise louder than others in hopes of it sounding like music to the right people (domination of TV ads for pharmaceuticals). The internet has also created new ways to just make more noise, and boy is there a lot of it. TikTok strikes me as a "make more noise" approach.

Free downloads don't tell you much about usage. The developer could be getting stinking rich, but that's not immediately apparent.

A subscription revenue stream is where things are going I think. That seems like a reasonable convergence.

Weebles, please correct me if I'm substantially misusing business terms here.

I downloaded the app as well, it seems decent.....but already using Navionics and Aquamap for what I need.

I do feel the developer's pain on the boat show attention. I worked boat shows helping a friend that used to own a dealership for 10+ years. Even before it was all pontoons and ski boats....so more "navigation focused" boating, I would see various people with their good ideas get largely ignored as people were flocking to the big boats.

This year I went to the pontoon....err BOAT show (Minneapolis, MN last weekend) and I was looking for the opposite, I was looking at all the small booths for stuff for fun. There really wasn't a lot to see unless you were into pontoon or ski/fishing boats. I don't think there was a single sailboat there, a segment that used to dominate that show since I was a kid.

Aside from some wax, getting rid of your puffy eyes solution, and the hobie kayak contraption booth, nothing useful for me.

I'm not sure what show he was at, but the Minneapolis show would probably never be his target.

Good call out on all the "noise" of all media. Hopefully his noise helped his cause and maybe the push he needed.

I was at the Toronto boat show yesterday. Yawn. A few familiar faces, not much more. I was hoping to run into someone to chat with about my ailing thruster, but Nada. I think they build them not far from here.

I downloaded the free app. Played with it for a few minutes, will compare side by side with Navionics paid app once we get launched in the spring. Hopefully with his cash influx he will keep investing in development.

Non-paywall article HERE. Appears he was at a boat show in Chicago.

Argo Nav uses NOAA ENC maps for their underlying platform. If you are outside US waters you get some general view that is likely less accurate than it appears. But heck, it's free.

I quickly breezed-through a YouTube review of the Premium version ($20/yr) by someone in the Chesapeake Bay (I will not link it as it was a typically amateurish 2-min review stretched to 12-mins made somewhat more watchable as the reviewer was an attractive woman versus an overweight old fart such as myself). I had hoped the Weather feature would be more "Windy-esque" but it's not - more Weather Channel summary. I did not see anything on sea-state.

What would snap my head back? If Navionics had PredictWind weather features including routing; or if PredictWind included ENC-level navigation. I do think Argo Nav may have an interesting line on eeking-out a social media platform - essentially combining the features of Active Captain and Waterway Guide into an approachable exchange/forum. Not sure that's their direction, but if so, might have legs.

Regardless, cool story about how the App hits paydirt. I watched the original Tik-Tok. Guy struck me as a geek with a really good heart just watching foot traffic pass him by. Sure makes for a long day.....good on his daughter!!!!

Peter

FYI .If you add a script blocker you can get around the pay walls at most news papers.