HOW MUCH IS THE TOTAL COST TO MAKE AN APP FOR A SMALL BUSINESS?

Apps are popular these days, so it’ll definitely be a good move to create a mobile app to further promote your brand. However, creating an app isn’t as easy as you may think. Making your own app entails a lot of planning and a lot of budgeting.

You especially have to pay attention to the cost because it can be expensive to build an app, depending on how high tech or functional you want it to be. If you’re a novice or beginner at app creation, here is a guide on the estimated cost that you need to shell out.

Given below are cost factors that you have to take into consideration, as well as the actual costs of the development.

THE BUSINESS MODEL

The first thing that you have to consider is your business model. How will the app fit into your business model? If it can compliment your brand, then it’ll be easy to market the app. If it’s a bit hard to fit in, you might need to do some thinking as to how you’ll make it fit.

THE KIND OF APP

How high tech do you want your app to be? Obviously, the more low tech the app, the cheaper it will be. To get an idea of how the costing is like, check out the estimated costs for Android apps below:

• Basic App- up to $35,000
• Standard App- $40,000 to $55,000
• Semi High-Tech Apps- $55,000 to $100,000 (depending on the functions)
• Very High Tech Apps- $100,000 and higher

These are the costs for Android apps. Let’s check out the ones for iOS or Apple apps.

• Table Based Apps- $1,000 to $4,000
• Database Apps- $5,000 to $50,000
• Gaming Apps- Up to $250,000 (depending on quality and functions of the game)

THE FUNCTIONS

Next, you have to consider the functions of the app. There are so many functions that you can choose from. As long as you tell the developer what you want, the developer will be the one to quote you. However, below are some of the most common functions that you can add along with their respective costs:

• In-app purchases: Around $3,000
• Internet services: $1,000 to $5,000
• Share Functions: $500 to $1,500;
• SDKs: $50 to $200

The cost of other functions may vary depending on the developer.

THE DESIGN

The design would entail both the front and the backend of the app (what the consumer sees and what you see from the back). You have to work with your development team when including all the functions and development to create the final app design.

THE MANPOWER

You have two options with regard to manpower— you can create your own team of developers, or you can outsource a development company (or a freelance developer) to create the app for you. If you want to create your own team, you’ll need:

• Operations Manager to supervise the development
• The Coding Team to do the actual development structure
• The QA Engineer to test all the protocols
• The UX Specialist to help determine what people would want in the app

If you want to get a development company, check out some of the costs below for three development companies:

• Applico- $100,000 to $300,000
• Fueled- $100,000 to $500,000
• Savvy Apps- $100,000 to $500,000

If you want to get a freelancer, you would most likely be charged by the hour. Here are some estimated rates:

• Native Apps- $35 to 100 per hour
• Cross-Platform Apps- $16 to 60 per hour
• Hybrid Apps- $20 to $100 per hour

CONCLUSION

As you can see, it’s possible to spend over half a million dollars on the development of a regular app. However, it is also possible to spend much less like just a little below $100,000 depending on what you want your app to be like. All you have to do is to create your main vision first and work from there. You’ll be able to see the costs along the way. From there, you can start shaving off costs and functions that you won’t need.

Take note that all these costs are estimates and may differ from the actual figures.

PLANNING A WEBSITE FOR A CHINESE AUDIENCE? – CONSIDER THESE POINTS

A website is very important for any business house or professional individual. It gives a face value to the customers and followers while giving them the information about the products and services that you provide. When you are planning to build a website for Chinese audience, the conditions are little different from rest of the world. Most of the basic concepts are similar but there are some aspects that you need to consider before moving ahead.

Image Created by Mindandi – Freepik.com

PURPOSE

First of all, you need to decide the purpose of the website. You need to be clear in your mind if it is going to be a website that provides complete details about your business, if it is going to be a blog, or if it is going to be an e-commerce website where customers can place orders for the services or the products.

1. The domain name: The second point that you need to consider is the name of the website. When we discuss the importance of the name, a lot of people use the famous phrase “What’s in the name – Williams Shakespeare”. Now, if you notice, his name appears at the end of the quote and everyone knows that he said this phrase. This is how important the name is.

When we talk about the name of the website, consider the following points:

• Pick the word or combination of words that mean something to a Chinese audience. The common English names and combinations generally do not work for them.
• A domain name that has foreign influence will be hard to remember for the customers in China. Avoid such names.
• There are some words which have awful meanings or usage in China. Please do consider checking the meaning and usage in the country before finalizing it.
• Keep the name of the domain small and meaningful.
• Do not use “-“ in the name of the website and people do not remember to put the “-“.
• You can use Chinese PinYin as an alternative choice. The Chinese customers remember the name of the websites which are easy to pronounce for them.
• If your desired domain name is already registered, you can contact the owner to negotiate a purchase.
• Do remember that if you plan not to go for a .com domain and prefer a .cn domain, you will have to go through a lot of paperwork. The domain name with a .cn extension is not a necessity to establish a name in Chinese market so if you can, avoid it.

2. Web hosting: First of all make sure that the location of the server is as close to China as possible to ensure faster loading time. You can choose Chinese servers but they require a lot of paperwork just like registering a domain name in China. However, if you host the website in Hong Kong China, Singapore, Korea and Japan, the location will be much closer to the mainland China and it will work like a charm for you

The next point to remember about the web hosting service is how reliable is the hosting service provider. Do not randomly choose the service provider and do check the online reviews for the company. If possible do consult with the friend circle to get some offline reviews.

You also need to consider the amount of traffic that you are going to get. A small blog may not get a lot of visitors on daily basis as compared to an e-commerce site. So choose the hosting plan according to the number of customers you expect that you will get.

3. Administration: When you are setting up a website in or for the Chinese audience, you will require doing a Real Name Verification of the business entity. You will need to provide your documents that contain personal and business details. Also, it will require a submission of ICP license along with some other formalities.

4. Content Management System: Better known as CMS, it is the backend of the website based on a coding language like PHP. The CMS helps the owner of the website in making simple changes without the in-depth knowledge of the coding languages. You can add pages, posts, images, videos etc. via CMS and make some design changes as well. There are a number of CMS systems available in the market like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magneto, Blogger, Shopify etc. Out of these CMSs, WordPress has the market share of above 50%. It is easier to hire a WordPress developer at an affordable price and the CMS has tons of add-on as well which can be helpful in making the website an easy deal for both owner of the website and the customers.

5. Importance of translation: When you get a website done for China in English, you may need to add the whole content in the Chinese language as well or vice versa. Make sure to hire a professional translator so that your customers do not get lost in the translation.

6. Website design: Make sure the color, style, theme, structure, and language meet the eye of the customers that you are targeting. For example, if your target is mature people, you need to keep the color scheme calm while for the young people, it should give the energetic vibe.

7. Functioning: Make sure to sit and discuss the functioning of the website with the developer for the Chinese audience. You should be clear on the points that if it is going to be a combination of information, blog, e-commerce etc. or you want to have just a blog or just an e-commerce website. Also, you need to consider the best possible payment gateway for the e-commerce website. There are services like Alipay, WeChat payment etc. which you can use in China.

8. Website testing: It is very important to test all the aspects of the website for the Chinese audience before making it public. You need to make sure that there are no services included in the coding which may block or slow down the website. The services including Google, Facebook, and Twitter etc. are banned in China. Make sure the Google fonts are not used by the website. Also, do make sure that website is mobile friendly as most of the Chinese users use their Smartphone to access the websites. A mobile app for an e-commerce website can do wonders for you.

CONCLUSION

The process of making a website for the Chinese audience may look overwhelming but it is a small price that you need to pay to have the access to the biggest economy in the world.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WECHAT AND WEIBO NOWADAYS?

WeChat and Weibo dominate the social media space in China, especially with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google being blocked in the region. The two are pretty similar in terms of their aim of connecting people and making the web a valuable means for engaging and efficient communication, but they also have key differences that set them apart.

WeChat

WeChat is a powerful instant-messaging platform which includes all-in-one services, like making payments, hailing a cab, making purchases, sending bitcoins, paying utility bills, and more. It was created in January 2011 by Tencent. It’s now the number one communications platform by the Chinese society. It’s also a huge Chinese competitor of Whatsapp. It has over a billion monthly active users that enjoy its mini-programs feature and various functions developed by Tencent and other independent developers. It now has over 580,000 mini-programs in its arsenal.

Weibo

Weibo was launched in August 14, 2009 by Sina Corporation. This Sina app is another leading social media network where people can create, discover, and share Chinese-language content. People can then publicly express themselves in real time and interact with other users not just in China but in the whole world. This social media and microblogging service is also referred to as the Chinese Twitter. They have this revamped feed that pushes content most relevant to the users. This keeps the audience engaged and stay in the app further. It’s got over 376 million monthly active Weibo users with its features seemingly combining that of Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr. Despite its close competition with WeChat, Weibo furthers their company strategies by introducing more live streaming and creating content partnerships with third parties.

Now, let’s tackle the main weibo and wechat difference.

Differences Between Wechat and Weibo (Weibo vs Wechat)

Privacy Values

In terms of privacy, Weibo is more open, visible, and fast. On the other hand, WeChat is more relationship-focused and private.

Basic Core Philosophy

Weibo believes that Chinese millennials would increasingly ditch text in favor of richer content in the form of video and other more interactive forms. They also focus on effective information gathering and sharing and engaging users with the most relevant content around.

WeChat strives to be the most transformational mobile service in China. They believe in innovation and invest in creating multiple features to become a true one-stop shop.

Communication Models and tools

Weibo can be accessed using both mobile and desktop. WeChat, on the other hand, can only be used on mobile phones.
WeChat focuses on two-way connections while Weibo app is an open social media network which is not as “rigid demand” as WeChat.

Content Sharing Flexibility

WeChat app, as it is more private than Weibo, promotes mainly one-to-one connections. Weibo focuses more on one-to-many connections, and Weibo users can view the activities of other users they’re not necessarily connected with.

Nature of accounts and content positing freedoms

On Weibo, any user can post a feed and attach a long-form content or multi-media. The user relationships are rather asymmetric—users can follow other users and add comments to any feed while reposting. This allows an original feed to easily become a live viral conversation stream.

Meanwhile, WeChat is geared towards two-way relationships. Users can send texts, photos, and videos to their contacts. They can also make a voice or video call.

Relationship with the audience

Weibo is mainly used by the younger audiences– 70% of its users are 30 years old and below. Weibo is popular for communicating news about public figures, news events, celebrities, well-known brands, and companies, etc. On the other hand, WeChat’s audience population is more diverse.

KOL (Key Opinion Leaders)

Weibo is preferred by Key Opinion Leaders or KOLS. They've trusted experts on certain industries with a huge following. They’re authorities in their niche. When these KOLs make recommendations, Weibo users then get more drawn to choosing their recommended products or services. This is not something prevalent on WeChat.

Viral content Generation, Discussions and Stimulations

Since messages and ads are more public on Weibo than they are on WeChat, Weibo’s content can get viral more easily. However, WeChat and Weibo both have the capacity to generate content and open discussions that users can actively take part in. Weibo is just more open and public than WeChat.

Marketing Strategy/ Online Campaigns

Weibo is a great tool to engage mass audiences. That’s why many marketers and businesses maximize the power of this platform. Many local and international brands partner with Weibo to promote their campaigns and boost their social media marketing.

If you want to use WeChat as a marketing channel, you can engage loyal customers through direct messages. You can set up subscription accounts on WeChat to send direct messages like company news, feature stories, and sales information to WeChat users. WeChat content might not get viral easily, but both platforms can be maximized to boost engagement and establish customer loyalty.

Market Share

WeChat has received around 29% of all the time Chinese users spend on mobile apps. Weibo, on the other hand, has outdone Twitter in terms of worth, surpassing Twitter’s market capitalization at $11.3bn.

Conclusion
Both WeChat and Weibo are social media giants, not just in China but also in the world. Both do have key differences, but they still share the same principle in terms of making users’ social media life fast, easy, and engaging. You don’t really have to choose weibo or wechat since you are free to maximize both.

In the future, we still can expect more transformations from these companies, and we still can anticipate more businesses taking advantage of their marketing potential and more users consistently using these platforms as a part of their day-to-day living.