As discussed in yesterday’s post Why Jio will crush all ad networks, companies are after your data because that is the only way to create a rich profile of you to lure advertisers in. What are the lesser known benefits?

  • Earlier Android used to let you, as an app developer, access info about other apps on your user’s device

If I am a ride sharing app A and I know that the user does not have my competitor B on their phone, I could just charge a higher fee knowing that they wont install B fresh from Play Store just to compare prices

If I were a e-com ticketing app, I could rearrange your payment options on checkout. Example, If I know that you have a particular wallet app on your phone and they are running a particular offer on my platform, I could show it higher amongst the payment options. Win Win for both the user and me

  • If you are using Social login on my platform, I can easily ask for your Gender

If I am A in the last example, and I know that my user is a Female looking for a cab at 9PM in Delhi, I can easily charge them 2X the amount as surge pricing

Next time when you are with your girl friend/ boyfriend just try this experiment. I know because I did

  • We already know that if someone’s battery is low, they are far higher to accept a surcharge

Ride sharing companies know this already. So better charge your phone because ordering a cab

Pro tip: This does not work for other on demand services. No one in their right mind would pay a surcharge when ordering a meal from the comfort of your home even if their battery is low

  • I will send push notifications only if your Wifi is on

Do you know that if you send push notifications to your users when they are on Wifi, they are far likely to open the app, and install an app update or just watch a new video. You can only send an X number of push notifications because your users get pissed off and churn

At CashBoss, we used to send a push notification to users when we detected a switch to Wifi from 2G/3G. Maybe try this trick the next time you are thinking of sending push notifications

  • Can I know who you are please? Are you employed?

A particular e-com company focussing on the female demographic used to send push notifications/offers at 9 AM everyday. They had done enough research to figure out that their ideal persona is an office going female who opens her app everyday to kill time while commuting to office

This is not something which you can know by asking your users to fill a form. So go out. Talk to your users. Understand why they open your app during certain periods of the day. Understand their motivation

I can go on and on. Give your more examples. But the takeaway is clear. The more the data you have on your users, the better you can tailor your product to extract meaximum value out of your users. It works even if your business model is not running ads.