Surfline · B2C · surf forecast and cam app
Aim the paid plan at surfers who go often; leave casual ones to free apps
Unknownpositioning-niche
What they did
Many free competitors, few paid ones. Surfline targets highly committed surfers willing to pay; people who surf once a month or less may be better served by free products. Plans a future product aimed at those other audiences.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How to Succeed with Freemium and Hybrid Monetization — Paul Ganev, Surfline“So for Surfline, for example, there are a lot of free competitors out there. There's not many paid competitors, and so we're targeting a consumer that would be willing to pay for this product.”
“However, over time, we have plans to produce a product that would be a better fit for these other consumers that are targeted by other audiences.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Surfline: Give surfers free daily forecasts, then sell the full version to the keen onesGrows with zero paid ads; free-to-paid conversion up a lot over five years
- Surfline: Publish a surf report page for every beach so searchers land on youSEO is the biggest channel after word of mouth; no numbers
- Surfline: Let free users use a few features without limits instead of capping visitsTested both; guest prefers unlimited use of free features, no numbers
- Surfline: Keep adding paid features and new surf cams for free users to upgrade toShort spike from early adopters, then a higher baseline conversion
- Surfline: Play a short video ad before free users can watch the surf camEarns from free users; host remembers an ad years later
- Surfline: Get brands to give subscribers exclusive discounts instead of showing them adsWell received; outperforms banner ads for brands, no numbers
- Surfline: Cut market research down using your own free users' data and surveys