Ferryman
Moves users of a dying app to an alternative before shutdown; the receiving app pays a bounty per migrated user
Nobody shows paying per migrated user; cited examples were free or in-house promos.
Moves users of a dying app to an alternative before shutdown; the receiving app pays a bounty per migrated user
Users can lose their habits, connections, and content with no easy way out. Smaller apps that want new users have no cheap way to reach people already leaving a closing product.
Ferryman moves users from a closing app to an alternative before shutdown, and the receiving app pays a bounty for each user it gains.
- 1A dying app's users are offered a switch to a chosen alternative.
- 2They are guided across before the original app shuts down.
- 3The receiving app pays a bounty for each user who arrives.
Why it failed
Check 4 · No one would payThe cited inspirations show that displaced users are valuable, but not that anyone pays a third party per migrated user. Instapaper and Matter ran their own in-house promos (a 3-month trial, 50% off year one). PixlRun is a free tracker with no revenue evidence. Adarsh's X, LinkedIn and Indian builder-community reach also doesn't clearly include the app founders who would pay, or the users of whichever app is dying.
What already exists
6 products checked- 01
Get one receiving app to sign a paid per-user pilot.
- 02
Interview five app founders about who they'd pay and why.
- 03
Test a free migration tool on one dying app's users first.
- Pocket shutdown (Matter/Instapaper offers), Mint -> Monarch, PixlRun shutdown tracker
Pocket shutdown (Matter/Instapaper offers), Mint -> Monarch, PixlRun shutdown tracker