Growth consolidation

The weeks that followed our last update on Vetri were marked by a robust consolidation of all growth parameters. To our surprise, this consolidation was apparent despite the sharp holiday slow down of available inventory which directly impacts daily active user metrics as well as daily earnings of course. Now with 2 months of data available, we thought it would make the most sense to see how the latest weekly KPIs would compare to the 4 weeks prior.

For weekly active users, growth rates from the earlier month were 95%, 57%, 2%, and 42% thus averaging 50%. For weekly new users, the growth rates 67%, 20%, – 17%, and 78%, therefore, averaging 37%.

What happened that third week of the second month of Vetri’s latest release, you might ask? Two things mainly. On one hand, survey inventory levels were still relatively low as most US companies had barely come out of their holiday slumber. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly for us, that’s the week we got hit hard by 2 damaging app store reviews (US and UK markets for both IOS and Android) and contributing then to our lowest app ratings of 2.3 and 2.0 respectfully. We have bounced back to 3.0 and above since then.

App ratings matter

Occasional bad app ratings and damaging commentaries can never completely go away and be expected to be replaced by positive reviews from ever happier users. That’s because of the way they are being generated and by the sacro-saint and protective rules that shield users from any potential interventions on behalf of app owners trying to defend themselves, regardless of how legitimate or illegitimate a damaging rating is.  It was high time we put in place an “app review optimization” strategy and made sure it was built into the code. The big nut to crack can be summarized as follows:

“How to legitimately and consistently score a minimum of 3.0 rating in both app stores when users almost never voluntarily rate us when they are happy but almost always leaves a review when they are disgruntled over how the app is performing”. Well, it turns out that there are some tricks of the trade that one can use, and certainly hope that last week’s latest release will take of that problem going forward.

Having to prioritize the development of tools aimed at maximizing ratings certainly and frustratingly came at some cost as important developments and features were pushed back. This includes the integration of CINT and inBrain surveys and the opening of new geographic regions they enable. These are now likely to be introduced in the second half of February. Similarly, at least one new exchange is expected to be introduced although minimum liquidity requirements imply that we continue to grow at these levels or accelerate the pace if we can hope for the new listing to take place before Easter. Our now live marketing campaign should go some length to giving comfort that’s possible, however.

That’s for this month. Don’t miss our next update in February for an in-depth community update on “The way forward”.

Safe to assume a lot of you are keen to say goodbye to 2020. Undoubtedly, for us here at VETRI, nothing could be truer when it comes to describing our sentiment.

COVID aside, 2020 started off fairly well, mind you. Enthused by the acquisition of a key and powerful strategic partner, Lucid, the world’s leader in “insight technology”, our path to success seemed rather linear and unencumbered. Of course, ever since Procivis bequeathed the Foundation with the reigns of VETRI (along with the IP, its exploitation, as well as a capital reserve in the form of tokens) we also understood the implications of inheriting a code and algorithms, developed by third parties, that had consumed considerable resources over many months. Or so we thought…

From March to September, an eternity in our sector of activity, our developers, tirelessly at first, then more and more desperately, tried to “make it all work”: to integrate what was passed on with the development needs and features demanded by Lucid’s operating platform.

But it wasn’t to be. The code we had inherited was built on generations-old software and couldn’t be salvaged, or even built on, without us encountering insurmountable problems down the line. Bugs basically. And of biblical proportions, it turned out.

By then, it dawned on us that our only option was to start over and rebuild the code entirely. Both front and back ends. We had hit a very low point and that dawn was most definitely sunless. We had wasted half a year and by September, 6 months after we had begun work on the Lucid integration,  nothing was working!

The last 4 weeks

November 23rd marks the day of our first working app release. This time, based entirely on newly written code and this time,  using the latest available tools and software. Under its current form and given the history, we might as well call it “VETRI 1.0”. It showcases our very first use case, VETRI as “Best Paying  Survey Aggregator” but one we absolutely want to get right – technically and commercially –  before we consider moving on to the next use case.

As it stands, we finally have a robust and competitive product. Over the comings weeks, you can expect lots of new features and offering enhancements,  such as:

  • The integration of CINT’s survey offering –  CINT is  number 2 in the global “insight technology” market, and after Lucid, but the clear and established leader in Europe (DACH included)
  • PayPal integration
  • In-app messaging
  • Enhanced earnings/rewards opportunities for users
  • Maintenance and bug fixes

Marketing efforts and investments are to follow soon after this next release, which we expect to take place as early as the middle of next month.

We promised you some quantitative data. “A picture is worth a thousand words”, as the saying goes. And so, as our concluding message and so you can judge our progress for yourself, please see below some relevant graphics straight out of Google analytics (pretty much!).

(please note the below numbers reflect  organic growth, as hardly any marketing initiatives / spent were undertaken during the period):