Why Founders Should Start With a Website, Not a Mobile app

Why Founders Should Start With a Website, Not a Mobile app

By Julia Enthoven January 3, 2019

引用：https://www.atrium.co/blog/founders-should-build-website-not-mobile-app/

翻译：ElleryQu

如有版权问题，请联系我，我将在第一时间删除。

When I was a Stanford undergraduate in 2012, everyone seemed to be building apps. The sexiest tech startups—Snap, Uber, Facebook—were almost synonymous with the word “app,” and that the world was moving increasingly towards “mobile-only” software. Mobile fever was everywhere, and software = apps.
2012年，我还就读大学时，似乎每个人都在开发app。最有吸引力的初创公司——Snap,Uber, Facebook——几乎是app一词的代名词。世界向移动端软件加速靠拢。移动发烧者随处可见，几乎软件就等同于app。

Now it’s 2019. App obsession has calmed down. In the meantime, I’ve worked at Google and started a video editing website called Kapwing , so I have more perspective on what it’s like to launch a startup. In this post, I’ll share my opinion on why founders should almost always build a website first instead of a native app in the early days of a startup.
现在已经是2019年了。App狂热已经平静下来。当前我供职于Google并创立了一个视频编辑网站（Kapwing），因此我更了解启动创业是什么样的。在这篇文章中，我将分享我的观点：为什么在创业初期创始者应当几乎总是先架设一个网站，而非开发原生应用。

Background

背景

Last September, my co-founder and I noticed that video memes were hugely popular and that there were several meme native apps, but there were no websites that helped people make video memes online. So, we built the web’s first video meme generator . Within weeks, Kapwing had hundreds of meme creators using the website daily thanks to the magic of SEO. Soon, our users were begging us for other video editing tools for the browser, and Kapwing was born.
上个九月，我和我的联合创始人注意到视频模因正火爆流行并且市场上有几款原生的有趣视频app。但是，几乎没有网站能帮助人们在线制作有趣视频。因此，我们首先开发了网站video meme generator。在SEO（搜索引擎优化）的魔力下，数周内Kapwing就拥有了数百名每日使用网站的趣味视频创作者。很快，我们的用户就请求我们加入其他的浏览器视频编辑工具，因此Kapwing应运而生。

The pressure of bootstrapping helped us discover the power of the web. As we scrambled to get traction, we learned a lot about SEO, the affordability of cloud storage, advancements in web technology, blogging, and the growth of web productivity platforms. Ilya Fushman, Dylan Field, and Clark Valberg all got involved as investors. Now, we built an iOS app to facilitate video downloads, although almost all product development is focused on Kapwing’s web platform. Based on my experience in Startup Land over the last 15 months, here are some things you should consider when bringing your startup to market.
引导的压力帮助我们发现了网络的力量。我们竭力的获取流量，学习了SEO相关的内容，了解了云存储的可购性，网络技术的发展进步，博客技术以及网络生产平台的成长。Ilya Fushman, Dylan Field, 和Clark Valberg加入成为投资者。如今，我们开发了一个iOS app，使视频下载更便捷——尽管几乎所有产品开发都集中于Kapwing网络平台。基于我过去十五个月中在Startup Land的个人经历，这有一些在你把你的初创推向市场时需要考虑的事情。

Consumer usage: Mobile apps vs websites

消费者使用：移动app VS 网站

According to research from the Chrome team at Google and others, people spend more time on mobile apps than they do on mobile websites. Apps account for up to 90% of time spent on a phone and 77% of the time on tablets. But app usage is heavily concentrated in a few favorite apps (eMarketer). More than 50% of consumer app time is taken by a Facebook or Alphabet app (Apptopia), and 90% is spent in a person’s five top apps.
根据来自Google的Chrome团队以及其他人的研究，相比于移动端网页，人们在移动app上投入了更多时间。App贡献了90%的花在手机的时间及77%的花在平板上的时间。但是，app的使用严重集中在用户喜爱的少数几个app上（eMarketer）。超过50%的消费者应用时间被花在了Facebook或Alphabet （Apptopia）旗下的app，并且90%的时间被花在了个人的top 5 app上。

Alternatively, time spent on the web is more evenly distributed across providers and publishers. In the browser, people visit new websites they find on Google, explore links from existing apps, and browse content without the barrier of app installation. As a result, it’s easier for an unknown startup to reach users for the first time with a web presence vs a native presence.
而在另一方面中，花在网络上的时间更加平均的分布在提供商和发布商之间。在浏览器中，人们访问他们在Google找到的新网站，浏览现有app的链接，在没有app安装的负担下阅览内容。从结果上说，对于不出名的初创者要初次获得用户，相比原生形态，网站形态更容易一些。

4 reasons to first build a website instead of a mobile app

初次构建网站而非移动app的四个理由

Based on my experience as a founder, the web is an easier starting point than native. I recommend that aspiring entrepreneurs test out their ideas with websites instead of native apps because websites are easier to build, distribute, and monetize. Here’s why:
根据我作为创始人的经验，相比原生，网站是一个更容易的启动点。由于网站更容易开发、发布及变现，我建议有抱负的从业者用网站而非移动app来实测其想法。下面是为什么：

1) Building the MVP

Instant deployment

MVP模式开发
即刻部署

When a web developer pushes changes to their site, the changes are deployed immediately, and every user sees the update. In contrast, mobile app users must install an update to get changes you’ve pushed, which leaves a long tail of users with buggy or outdated versions. Kapwing is more agile because we push updates quickly—even daily—without gating changes behind a release version or interrupting our users. Last December, right after Christmas, an API Kapwing depended on broke unexpectedly, and we shipped changes the same day to get our service back online. Since we could deploy immediately, the unexpected outage was only a small hiccup. If Kapwing was an app, it would have taken a week for the new version to get approved, go live, and rollout to users through app updates—that would have been a huge loss.
当一位网站开发者向站点推送更改时，更改会被立刻部署，并且每位用户都能看到更新。相反的，移动app用户必须安装更新来获得你所推送的更改，这就形成了由使用错误或过时版本的用户组成的长尾。Kapwing更加敏捷，因为我们迅速的甚至是每日的推送更新而不需要限制发布版本后的门控更改或打断我们的用户。上个12月，恰在圣诞节后，一个Kapwing依赖的API毫无征兆的崩溃了，而我们在同日发送了更改以使我们的服务重新上线。由于我们可以立刻部署，这个预期之外的停运只是一个小小的插曲。如果Kap是一个app，他可能需要花费一周的时间来使新版本获得批准，上线，并通过应用程序更新推广给用户——这可能产生极大的损失。

Independent launch review

独立发布审核

Both Apple and Google have revised their developer policies in the last 18 months, adding stricter requirements for what is allowed in an app that’s featured on their Store. The App Store and Google Play’s approvers reject app submissions more often, especially from unknown startups they don’t have a relationship with. Every time a native app developer pushes an update, they risk delays and setbacks due to review requirements.
Apple和Google在过去的18月内都修订了他们的开发者政策添加了对上架于官方商店的app的允许内容的更严格的要求。App Store和Google Play更频繁的拒绝提交的内容，尤其是来自不出名的、没有联系的初创团队。每当原生app开发者推送更新，由于审核要求，他们都会冒着推延和挫折的风险。

When we first launched the Kapwing iOS app, it took nearly 2 weeks to push through review due to issues unrelated to the product. For example, Apple rejected our app because we used an iPhone 8 device frame in our App Store preview images instead of the iPhone 10, which falls short of Apple’s requirements to match the images with the user’s device. Responding to the “big company” nitpicks delayed the app and distracted our progress. In contrast, web developers can push any change without external roadblocks or opinions.
当我们首次推出Kapwing iOS版app时，推动其通过由于与产品不相关的审核花费了近两周的时间。举个例子，Apple拒绝了我们的app因为我们在App Store预览图中用了iPhone 8设备框架而非iPhone 10，而这不符合Apple对于图片与用户设备相匹配的要求。对付“大公司”的吹毛求疵拖延了app的上线并且扰乱了我们的进程。相对的，网络开发者可以在没有外部障碍或观点的情况下推送任何更新。

Startup cost

初创花费

An App Store developer license costs $99/year, whereas a Namecheap domain is less than $10/month. These are small numbers compared to development costs down the road but are important for a bootstrapping founder to keep in mind.
一个App Store开发人员许可证需要花费$99/年，而一个Namecheap域名每月不到10美元。与开发成本相比，这只是个小数字，但对于引导创始人掌控全局则非常重要。

2) Getting users

Ease of distribution and expansion

获得用户
分布和拓展的简单性

No one wants to download apps anymore. The barrier to convincing someone to try your product is a lot higher for an app than a website. URLs can be easily shared and show up in Google search, and new users don’t need to install a software package that takes up space on their phone.
没人想再下载app。说服他人尝试你的app的代价要比网站高。URL可以被轻松地分享及在Google搜索中展示，并且新用户不需要安装耗费手机空间的软件包。

With our mobile web app, thousands of users who would rather upload a video and download the edited output than install a new photo editing app on their phone. As we’ve grown, we’ve been able to expand into other editing verticals since users can try out new tools without needing to install a separate app. Our users share the links to their output videos and links to the Kapwing tools, propagating organic entry points across social media and the web.
通过我们的移动端网络app，数以千计的用户更愿意上传视频并下载剪辑好的输出文件，而非在手机上安装一个新的图像编辑app。随着我们的壮大，我们已经能够拓展到其他的编辑领域，因为其他用户可在不需要安装独立app的情况下尝试新工具。我们的用户分享他们产出视频及Kapwing的链接，在社交媒体和网络上传播有机入口。

Acquisition cost

用户获得成本

Competition and app fatigue has driven the cost of acquisition for apps up dramatically in the last five years. The number of Android apps in the Play Store peaked in March 2018.
竞争和app疲劳使得app的用户获得成本 在过去五年间显著增加。Play Store里的Android端app数量在2018年三月达到顶峰。

Since we launched the Kapwing meme maker last September, we’ve acquired new users for free through SEO, a channel that is super accessible to bootstrapping founders. In the early days, when founders are still validating ideas, they can save themselves pain and money by leveraging organic acquisition through search.
自从我们在上个九月上架Kapwing meme maker，我们已经通过SEO，一种非常适合引导创始人的渠道，免费获得了许多新用户。在早期，当创始人还在验证想法时，他们可以借助通过搜索渠道的有机获取来减轻痛苦和节约金钱。

3) Scaling

Works on all devices

拓展性
在全设备上工作

At a startup, engineering resources are scarce. It’s expensive to spread your engineering expertise across different platforms, so it’s better to focus on one in the beginning. Building for the web means that users on mobile, desktop, Chromebooks (which have become the most popular EDU hardware in the US), and any other internet-connected device can use your service, whereas a native app is specific to iOS or Android.
在初创阶段，工程资源非常稀缺。把你的工程技能拓展到不同平台是代价高昂的，因此最好在最开始只专注于一个。为网络端开发意味着移动端用户，PC端用户，Chromebooks用户（Chromebooks已成为美国最受欢迎的EDU硬件）以及其他联网设备可以使用你的服务，而一个原生app在专供iOS或Android。

Building a website does not mean you give up on mobile users; nearly 50% of Kapwing’s users come from a smartphone or tablet. With a web-based product, your engineers can build entirely in Javascript to streamline the development process versus working in multiple different front-end languages.
开发一个网页并不意味着你就放弃了移动端用户；将近50%的Kapwing用户来自智能手机或平板。通过一个基于网络的产品，你的工程师可以完全使用JavaScript进行架构以简化开发过程，而非使用多种不同的前端语言。

Adaptable

移植性

If you build a successful mobile-friendly website with plenty of mobile traffic, you can push your mobile users to native apps eventually. Millions of active users have installed the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yelp, Reddit, and LinkedIn apps after getting a prompt on the mobile version of the website. But a successful native app will have trouble developing a similar offering for the desktop since the technology and user behavior is so different. It’s lower-risk to build out a responsive web interface then move to native once you validate your idea than to start with native on day one.
你如果成功构建了一个移动端友好的网站，获得了许多移动端的流量，就可以最终把你的移动用户推向原生app。得到网站的移动端版本提示，数百万的活跃用户已经安装了Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yelp, Reddit, 和 LinkedIn等app。但是一个成功的原生app将会存在问题：由于技术和用户行为上的差异，开发相似的PC端程序将变得困难。相比第一天就开发原生app，开发一个响应式的网络接口，然后转移到原生环境，这种策略相对风险更低。

Internationalization

国际化

Browsers automatically translate text, so web developers don’t need to do much extra work to reach foreign users. Kapwing was designed by English speakers, but, without any additional work from us, the site serves tens of thousands of non-English speakers monthly. Web products get internationalization for free, which is important for a small, cash-strapped team. Native app teams need to figure out how to translate and launch in international markets.
浏览器可以自动翻译文本，因此网络开发者不需要为获得外国用户做太多额外工作。Kapwing是由英语母语者开发的，但是，再没有任何来自我们的额外工作的情况下，网站每月服务以万计的非英语用户。网络产品得到免费的国际化，这对囊中羞涩的小型的团队很重要。原生app团队则需要解决如何翻译及如何打入国际市场的问题。

4) Making Money

Desktop users pay a higher price

赚钱！
PC端用户支付更高的价格

When you’re trying to monetize, you won’t be able to extract subscriptions fee from mobile apps like you can on a desktop. Professional users expect their software to work on their work computer but don’t usually swipe the corporate card for native-only apps. As a result, the website price can be higher than the same service in an app. Kapwing charges $20 per month for the Pro no-watermark plan, while similar apps like Flyr TV charge only $5 per month for their premium package.
当你尝试变现时，你将不能像在PC端那样在移动app上收取订阅费。专业的用户希望他们的软件能在他们的工作计算机上工作，但通常不会为原生app刷商务卡。结果就是，网站上的价格可以比app上的相同服务更贵。Kapwing对高级无水印方案收取每月20美元，而类似的app，像Flyr TV对高级套餐每月仅收费5美元。

Preserve your margins on payments

留下渠道费

Building an iOS or Android app means you’ll have to give Apple or Google a substantial cut of in-app purchase and subscriptions (generally 30%). In contrast, Stripe only takes roughly 3% of the payments we collect on our website. There are more options for web payments, so you can preserve your margins when you charge users directly instead of through the iOS.
开发一个iOS或Android app意味着你将不得不割给Apple或Google大量的应用内购买或订阅收入（通常30%）。然而，Stripe只收取大概3%的我们从网络上获得的收入。还有更多的网络支付选择，因此当你直接向用户收费而非通过iOS时，你可以保留你的渠道费。

Exceptions: When you should build an app over a website

例外：什么时候你应当构建基于网页的app？

Like every decision in Startup Land, the choice between a website and a native app has its tradeoffs. Founders should decide on a case by case basis; there are some ideas where native apps have a big leg up:
就像每一个在Startup Land作出的决定，网站和原生app的选择都有其权衡。创始人需要项目情况做决定。什么时候原生app要更好？这有一些看法：

1. Location

基于位置

If your app’s major value proposition is related to location awareness or transit, your app is essentially mobile-only and needs to be baked into the OS to get fast access to location data and sensors. Examples: Lime, Bird, Uber, RunKeeper, Maps.
如果你的app的主要价值主要与位置感知或位置变化相关，你的app本质上就只用于移动端并且需要被嵌入操作系统来更快的访问位置数据和传感器。例子：Lime, Bird, Uber, RunKeeper, Maps。

2. Tight integration with native components

与本地组件紧密集成

If your value proposition is closely tied to local component (accelerometer, moisture sensor, camera, barometer, gyroscope, etc), a native app will have better performance and accuracy. Examples: compass and camera apps, heart rate monitor, audio recorder, Strava.
如果你的价值与本地传感器（加速度传感器，湿度传感器，相机，气压计，陀螺仪等）紧密相系，原生app会获得更好的表现和准确度。例子：指南针和相机app，心率测试仪，音频记录器，Strava。

3. Frequent small transactions that require a sign in

频繁的需要登录的小型事务处理

If you’re building a low-touch experience that the user does every day or multiple times a day, a native app removes the burden of a regular sign in and browser navigation. Examples: Habit trackers, dating apps, Venmo, Telegraph.
如果你开发一个带有低操作性的需要用户每天或一天多次体验的app，原生app可消除常规登入和浏览器导航的负担。例子：Habit trackers, 日程管理app, Venmo, Telegraph。

E-commerce companies, productivity platforms, discovery sites, organizational tools, and data aggregators don’t fall into these categories. Most startups don’t. Even if yours does, you can start with a website and see if your users beg for a native app instead. You can always make the shift towards native. In that case, your website will still be valuable for marketing and acquisition.
电子商务公司，生产力平台，发现站点，组织工具及数据聚合器不属于上述类别。绝大多数初创公司都不做这个。如果你做了，你可以以一个网站开始并观察你的用户是否需要一个替代的原生app。你总是可以向原生应用转变。那时，你的网站仍然对市场和用户获得富有价值。

Kapwing started as a website, and we’ve invested heavily in SEO, content marketing, and browser-based tech. Although we dream of making Kapwing viral apps, we can build powerful, accessible productivity tools in the browser thanks to recent developments in HTML5. If we can scale to millions of creators, our user base might be loyal enough to attract app downloads. Until then, it isn’t, and we’re focused on the net.
Kapwing最初是一个网站。我们花费重金在SEO，内容营销和基于浏览器的科技上。尽管我们梦想让Kapwing成为逢机必装的app，多亏了最近HTML5的开发，我们能够构建强力的易于获得的浏览器端的生产力工具。如果我们可以拓展到百分量级的创作者，我们的用户群对于拉动app下载将会足够忠诚。在那之前，它还不是，而我们仍将专注于网络。

Conclusion

结论

Hopefully, this article helps young developers reframe their approach to ideation and iteration. As a student, indie hacker, or side-project hustler, it’s fun to experiment with new ideas and launch concept quickly. But, in my opinion, starting those projects on the web will be faster and more likely to succeed than starting with iOS or Android.
希望这篇文章可以帮助年轻的开发者重新规划他们的想法的实现途径和换代的思路。作为一名学生，独立骇客，业余项目人，实验新想法和快速践行概念是非常有趣的事。但是，我认为，在网络上开始这些项目比从iOS或Android更快且更容易成功。

Happy hacking!