Hi Cryptoer,
Recently I came across this ICO Appcoins and it seems like more and more people are recommending it. So i decide to research more and share some findings with you all. Since Appcoins is developed by Aptoide and I feel that Aptoide is important for the development on Appcoins, some of the facts will be based on Aptoide.
History
Aptoide started way back as a proposal in 2009. In Q4 of 2010, it was launched in Bazaar Andriod Site as the site allows user to create their own store. In Aug 2012, Aptoide grew at such a tremendously speed and one of the huge milestone is that it merged with Bazaar Andriod brand. From there, it moved on to Europe in 2011, Asia in 2015.Business
Aptoide has very good foundation. It is situated internally with offices in Portugal, China and Singapore. It has 100 members in the team. (10 will be working on Appcoins.) The team is very experience in App Store field and so far, their strategy has been proven to be working effectively.Customer and Developer Base
The 2 key components in Aptoide is the Customer base and developer base. For customer base, claiming as the 3rd largest App store, the data i can find is - 200 or 150million users (diff source quote differently)
- 4 million downloads of the app
- 800k app
- 300k stores
The number of users seem to be growing at quite a constant speed. Reaching out to 150mil is no small feat. Some other facts: Enjin has 18.7mil registered users while Kin kik has 300million registered users. However, do take note that Kin Kik is a declining business when it is ICO-ing. It seems to me that Aptoide is still growing. What attract me in the app is that there are exclusive app in Apotide. The exclusive app will make Apotide an edge over any uprising competitors. Another way to look at how the developer is supporting Apotide is to have a look at Github. There is regular updates on Github.
VC Funding
VC has strict guidelines and regulation to select their clients. So usually, those ICO which has previously VC funding is believed to be a reputable company with demo or working products and potential growth in the long run. 2013, Aptoide has VC funding of 750,000 euro. In 2015, 3.7mil of euro VC funding.Appcoins Utilization
One of the most important question is how Appcoins integrate to the ecosystem. It is quite similar to many other concept where it is use as a payment method however I see somewhere that Appcoins has created a interesting concept called 'Proof of Attention' where the developer can track if the user has installed his app and uses it or not.Developer Trust
It is a arguable opinion on whether developer trust is good to be centralise or decentralise. In Appcoins, they aim to make the trusting issue to be decentralised so there is a universal transparent trust system. Since in crypto, it can be a preferable choice to decentralise things, it may not be so receptive to the general public/users. Since I am not a tech guy, I am unable to figure out how the trust system work so there is a little sense of insecurity, given that majority of the team members are not too well verse in crypto.Blockchain Awareness
Although the team is quite new in blockchain and crypto, they do their due diligence (which increase my confidence given my previous point). They are aware of the limitation and have openly reason on their decision-making. It appears to the team that they are open for bigger solutions and are more community-centered team.Competitor
What is assuring to me is that the team looks into details on who is their competitors. They looks at things in different layers and it shows that they are very well thought out and serious in their business planning. On one layer, they are looking at the blockchain level with competitor like Tezos and Iota. On a lower layer, they look at ICOs with a bit of similar concepts like BAT, Kin and Monetha.
So will you be investing in Appcoins???