The opportunity that I am seeking is to reduce the overuse of social media by teenagers and young adults. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are consuming the lives of this generation, leading to wasted time and negative health effects. Too often I see people studying in the library get sidetracked by going on their phone and scrolling through different social media apps, wasting precious time in which they could be studying. This opportunity is fairly new, as it is directly related to the rise of social media and its popularity. Not only is this a problem with young adults and teenagers in my area, but this is a nationwide and even global problem – mainly in developed countries where young people have access to their own personal smartphones.
Customers are currently satisfying their need through the use of the new iOS update on the iPhone that allows you to set an alert on your phone when you have spent an allotted time on a specific app. This notification allows you to get a feel for how long you have spent on a specific app in a given day. The one restriction to this is that this is only available on the iPhone because the iOS software does not apply to Androids. People who are using Androids are currently not tracking their use of social media and need a service that can do so.
I believe this opportunity will only be open for a short period of time. Many researchers are discovering the negative health effects that social media has on people and how much time is actually wasted on these platforms. Once the right person gets their hands on this information and has the resources to exploit the opportunity, they will be able to thrive in this market because of the few competitors.
I intend on seizing this opportunity by creating an app that allows you to set a time limit on how long you want to go on social media per day. The app then locks you out of the social media platform for the rest of the day after you have reached this time limit. My app is more sufficient then the iPhone setting because this setting is merely a notification and allows you to continue using the social media app, while my app actually locks you out of the social media platform for the rest of the day. My app will also offer the feature in which you can turn off all social media notifications. I understand that current phone settings also have this feature, but when I turn my notifications off through my phone, I still receive them periodically. My app will prevent any glitches that might occur from phone settings.
I plan on setting the original price for the app to be 99 cents. This will allow for revenue through direct purchases of the app instead of incorporating advertisements in my app because according to the interviews I have conducted, people would rather pay a price upfront than deal with advertisements throughout the use of the app. I understand people might be hesitant to purchase an app that prohibits them from performing an activity they enjoy, but I plan on getting to these people through word of mouth from their peers. Those that are willing to take a chance and purchase my app will find that being restricted from wasting their time on social media will allow them to be much more productive. Once their friends see this and hear how productive and free their friend feels after downloading my app, they will be encouraged to buy my app.
My innovation will help solve this problem of overusing social media by limiting the amount of time people spend on these platforms. Customers will try this product out because most people are understanding that they spend too much time on social media, but they do not have the self-control to put their phone down on their own. Most people do not realize that they spend so much of their time on social media until they are explicitly told to evaluate how much time they spend on their phones in a given day. Once they see my app on the app store, they will become aware that they do in fact need to reduce their usage of social media, so they will purchase my app to accomplish this.
The organizational aspect of my business would be quite small. I would be the owner of the company and I would attain a few investors, have a programmer to develop the app, and have a few advisors to help give me guidance on how I should proceed with business decisions. I would not have many employees, if any. The only job I would need is for people to manage the updating of the app and run maintenance on the app.
If I were to actually launch this service and create a company for my opportunity, I would begin here in Gainesville and promote my app on and off campus. I would hire my friend Jackson Rossi to be one of my advisors, as he is currently managing his company here in Gainesville. In five years, I could see myself taking on this venture as a side job to my real profession and treating it like a hobby. With the help of my advisors, if we are successful with this service, we could even develop new apps to meet the needs of the similar target audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment