Last year, Marques Brownlee, better known as the YouTube Handle MKBHHD, decided to leave the section of influence / Commentator and enter the platform of applications, only to quickly find out that it is fast to be read quickly. Now you are leaving. Mdali announced that his Wallpaper subscription program, panels, will close on December 31 after failing to generate an audience of people willing to pay for images that will appear on their home screen.
Brownlee took down Phuttonbrags escaping from the fiery announcement, noting that his app shot to the top spot in the iOS 204 store image category and eventually had more than 2 million user downloaded wallpapers. But that’s not enough to do business, it turns out. “At the beginning of the year, the composition of the development team changed, and despite our best efforts to bring participants who share our love and vision, “he wrote.” Instead of keeping the app running without letting you know about it, we also feel it’s better to do a clean break. “
The panels have a laid-back vibe from the start, considering that the business model was to shell out $50 a year (or $12 a month) for people to get access to the top wallpapers for their phone – something you can do for free with virtually any of your photos. The free version of the App allows users to access low-quality images and requires them to view advertisements before downloading anything.
The project has also taken some heat for the amount of information it allegedly collected at launch, asking users for permission to access their location, usage data, and information that appears to be essential to running the wallpaper app. MKBHD was receptive to feedback and tried to make changes as the project progressed, but it is difficult to recover from the appearance of money and data being captured when there is no clear market for the application in the first place.
TechCrunch notes that, according to data collected by appfigures, the panels have had 900,000 total downloads since launch and generated approximately $95,000 in purchases across iOS and Android. That wouldn’t be bad for a side project, but it’s not a good conversion rate of over 20 million subscribers to over 20 million followers on X. Low sales also suggest a crack available to artists who provide special wallpaper. What is half almost, anyway?
So by the end of the month, the panels will be gone. Brownlee said that they will be alone in the code if anyone wants to try to take the mantle, although it is not clear why anyone would be. The concept food He played at the beginning of the year 2010, when custom wallpapers felt like a more novel experience, and creating an application created a whole business. Maybe brownlee can fine tune his pitch a bit and retake it as an ai tool he produces for creating wallpapers, he could make a few million will start appearing on vc dopees instead of monetizing his audience.
