Challenging Amazon
At The StoryGraph, we're not focused on competition. Our focus is on listening to customer feedback and user needs and iterating on our product.
However, it's really hard not to take notice when, a couple of days after your iOS app launches, you're charting alongside the top three Amazon-owned book apps: Goodreads, Kindle, and Audible. 👀 |
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This was the UK App Store Books Chart on June 30th. In the US, we were 9th on that day, and top ten in a range of other European countries!
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While we've dropped a few places since then, I always thought that getting into the top ten and staying there would take several months, perhaps longer. It's cool to know that Amazon's dominance in this domain isn't impenetrable.
Okay, back to product improvements so that we can rise up higher in the charts and stay there! 💪🏾
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Since last time...
Yes, that's right! We're now in the App Store and the Google Play Store! 🎉
We weren't sure if this would be possible at this stage, given our tiny team, but we managed to pull it off.
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Rob released a new version of our Similar Users algorithm. We know that a lot of our users are trying to make their personal news feeds more exciting, and so that's what the focus was with this update.
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You can keep refreshing the selection of 5 similar users! And if you're a Plus user, you can search for any type of reader to further broaden your horizons. 🤓
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We're looking forward to improving the user experience with our recommendations — having a blank free-text box to fill out will always be challenging. 😅
However, we want to help our users get the most out of the feature as it exists now. When we see people complain about the quality of the recommendations, the vast majority of the time that free-text box hasn't been filled out.
So, Abbie put together some brilliant guidelines to help our users tailor our machine learning platform to suit their needs.
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Next two weeks
With the new apps out, we've been exposed to a wider range of users, devices, software versions, localisations, and accessibility concerns. We'll be working on addressing the most pressing pain points!
Also, I suspect that we'll hit a fun user number milestone... 👀
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What I'm reading right now
I love video games, though I don't really make any time to play them these days. I've heard the industry is absolutely gruelling and so I'm reading Jason Schreier's Blood, Sweat, and Pixels to find out more about what goes on behind the scenes! |
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Have a great week,
Nadia
P.S. Know somebody who's an avid reader or would enjoy following along with this journey? Please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)
Haven't tried The StoryGraph yet? Check it out today!
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Want to volunteer? Apply to be a Librarian!
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