It’s just over three weeks until Chinaccelerator 2012 officially graduates its newest flock of startups, but we’re already seeing some of the incubated businesses get going. One of these is AdConnect, whose AppSpree is an app cross-promotion network for small startups. For now, the service is free.
Co-founder Andrew Boos is originally from Toronto but is now busy honing AppSpree at Chinaccelerator HQ in Dalian, Northeast China – but the startup will eventually be based in Beijing with its five current full-timers.
Andrew pitches AppSpree as “a zero-cost way to help apps grow” as an alternative to its “expensive or opaque” larger rivals. It has the full array of stats and an analytics dashboard that developers need to see how the cross-promotions are benefitting their apps. Coming later, says Andrew, will be “substantial targeting” of ads and “full cost-per-action” options for things like acquiring new Weibo followers. Essentially, he says, it’s “an [ad] impressions swap – totally costless” and “less intimidating, more simple” for younger startups to use. “We’ll keep it free up to a threshold,” Andrew reckons.
Connecting apps and sharing users
AdConnect’s AppSpree will focus on Chinese apps, and will soon have more options for cross-promoting by app genres, regions, and language.
“The tricky part is behind us,” says Andrew, as all the service infrastructure is now done, and the website has just gone up in both English and Chinese. The next step is to get developers on board whilst also meeting with investors and practicing for the Chinaccelerator demo day on October 31st. He admits that there’s just one app developer signed up so far, so a few more fledgling apps from “growth-related startups” are needed to get the network moving.
It’ll be up against Chinese ad platforms like Guohe, or Innovation Works-backed Umeng. But Andrew identifies Papaya’s AppFlood as closer to what they’re working on – albeit with a different model.
Expectations will be high for the Chinaccelerator 2012 graduates. Of last year’s batch, OrderWithMe quickly went on to win TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing, and then the funky Piktochart made a strong showing at our own StartupArena Singapore contest earlier this year. We’ve already looked at one of this year’s Chinaccelerator chosen ones, WeiboAgent, which is a a SaaS advisory tool built on top of social media analytics for Sina Weibo, China’s hottest Twitter-esque service.
So if you have a burgeoning app on iOS or Android (with support for WP coming later), reach out to AppSpree and perhaps join its network.
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