Pingo AI · B2C · AI language speaking app
Make viral videos for learners of Russian
About half of new users came from Russia and couldn't pay; Russian content killed
What they did
What happened
In their words
Morrie Schonfeld - How I built a $500k/mo ai app (so you can just copy me)
Morrie Schonfeld… for and where they're based, and kind of trying to like guess their geo-target as best as possible. So this is our new users this month. This is iOS on the top. This is Android on the bottom. Pretty like healthy. Like the big spike here, we went really viral around here. These videos kind of died off around here. But if we look at the breakdown So this is Android on the bottom here. Look at the breakdown of Russian users. It's like half Russian.
Morrie SchonfeldSo like, you know, 10, a little over, that's 12,000 users. That's like 23,000 users. There's 12 and 1/2 of those 23,000 users are from Russia. 5,000 of those 12,000 users are from Russia, and it tapered off a bit cuz we killed our Russian content here. But our Russian content was working really well, and so we got half our user base from Russia. So a huge spike in Russian users, a lot of virality. They converted well, like we got a lot of users. It was like really exciting until then we kind of realized, oh, wait, like they're not converting well,
Morrie Schonfeldand we completely forgot that you can't transact in Russia. Google Play blocks it. Apple blocks it. You're not allowed to do web payments. Like you're not allowed to do business in Russia. And so these were like kind of like dead users. Like it was just a lot of spend on views that did not monetize at all.
Joseph ChoiAre you able to control that just through the content itself, or is it something about the location that they post from?
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More from this episode
- Only build an app whose main feature looks interesting on videoTalking to the AI became the core of every video; app reached ~$500K/month
- Film yourselves talking to the app on TikTok, one account per languageReached $20K MRR in about 3 months with almost no outside creators
- Show people using the app in every video, not just talk about the topicLanguage-topic videos without the app flopped; app-demo videos went viral and converted
- Tie videos to beginner lessons and culture moments, like K-dramas or the TikTok banA 'basic Korean quiz' got 77K views; a TikTok-ban/RedNote video got 1M
- Film the AI tutor roasting a learner until they cry on cameraTop video hit 52M views; the format has worked in every language since September
- Let users write their own scenes for the AI so creators can script funny videosCreators found the viral 'mean Pingo' format with it; users now ask for a mean mode
- Post language-tip slideshows that end with a pitch for the appSome hit 1M views, but accounts burned out fast; weak-CTA slides converted far worse
- Have assistants DM small creators learning the language, then move them to emailBuilt a roster of ~100 creators across ~20 languages
- Pay creators a base per video plus bonuses at 50K to 1M viewsKeeps creators paid for their time and chasing viral hits; no numbers
- Treat creators like investments: drop the weakest, keep the stars, train the middleTop 20-30% of ~100 creators drive most views; cut 30-50 who drove none
- Coach creators on lighting, camera angle, sound and doing something on cameraJust started; small tweaks tend to help good creators, no numbers yet
- Scale winning formats through a pay-per-view creator network; test ideas with core creatorsWinning variations get scaled quickly; spend is easy to flex; no numbers
- Show a timeline on the paywall: free today, reminder before billing, cancel anytimeBeat social-proof and yearly-vs-monthly paywall versions; no numbers given
- Offer the free trial only on the yearly plan and hide the monthly one
- Test a 3-day against a 7-day free trial, US and abroad separatelyNear-even in the US; 7-day converted ~2% better internationally (early data)
- When someone backs out of a 3-day trial, offer 7 free days at a lower priceConverts better than showing the 7-day trial first; exact lift not given
- Bill US users through web checkout to keep more of each sale
- Join Y Combinator, then raise quickly on strong revenue and CAC/LTV~100 investor meetings booked; round closed in about 3 days
Tags: geo-targeting, sanctions, unmonetizable-users, russian