Photo app for Generation Z. Swipewipe sells to French publisher MWM in its largest purchase so far

Swipewipe, a US -based photo management app that became virus virus between Gen Z is purchased, in part thanks to TIK. French mobile app publisher and developer MWM brings the app internally after previously working with Swipewipe Indie developer Adam O'Kane to increase the use of the app. The acquisition allows Swipewipe's founder to save money while continuing to financially benefit from his work through an ongoing revenue-sharing agreement with MWM.

While the original price was not disclosed, O'Kane credits MWM with being able to sell the app at a life-changing price without sacrificing future success. "If I were a developer... and I heard about this business, [MWM] helps app developers/entrepreneurs do what they want to do while they take care of other things - that's pretty compelling," explains O'Sleigh.

But like most companies that succeed overnight, drag didn't. O'Kane says he's been involved with social apps since he was 17. He is now 34. After the birth of his daughter a few years ago, the founder had realized that instead of swinging at home, why not go after a more modest victory, such as in singles or doubles? That led him to focus on Swipewipe, a photo management app that gamified the process of removing unwanted photos from your iPhone's camera roll. Deleting old photos is common among Generation Zers, who may have grown up with a lack of space on their phones and often view photos differently than previous generations. Gen Z is more likely to use photos to represent themselves to the world and capture moments in time when posting content on social media, but they don't necessarily want to archive photos long-term. They also regularly clean their photo accounts.

While O'Kane admits that Swipewipe is far from the first photo -Renerate applications, he imagines an experience that can make the process more interesting and attract users almost as games. He said, "I depict these huge and colorful blocks, and the user knows how their progress has happened very well because it is a huge task." Breaks [Photo Cleaning] to this management method.

In 2021, O'Kane collaborated with the contractor who helped the developed application while developing the interface and operating product management. The app launched on app discovery site Product Hunt the following year, but gained only a small audience.

That's when a company O'Kane had never heard of before, MWM, got in touch. The French company is promoting its new publishing platform and partnering with third-party studios to support ad spend and monetization. After researching Swipewipe's metrics and qualitative testing, MWM incorporated Swipewipe into their plans and began working directly with O'Kane. Still, the app wasn't an instant hit, and MWM had warned that it might be.

Freed from the business side, however, O'Kane can focus on the product while continuing to own the app. Although advertising failed last year, the ad was later deleted, but Swipewipe discovered the attractiveness of its subscription model and combined with natural advertising. The application now has more than 5 million downloads, and MWM is expected to exceed only EUR 10 million this year, only for iOS, which is largely due to Swipewipe's subscription revenue to a large extent. As the app grew, it gained more public attention. Swipewipe aired on KTLA in Los Angeles. By the summer, the numbers had grown, from 15,000 active users in July to 300,000 just two months later. In December, TechCrunch featured it as a hidden gem in the App Store. O'Kane remembers seeing some teenagers using his app while waiting in line for amusement park rides during this time. He compares it to musicians hearing their songs on the radio for the first time. "It feels really good. I just think guys, they can be on Instagram, Snap, Piek, they chose my little use in this long roller coaster. It was just such a cool feeling," he says.

The app also later went viral on TikTok, and then Swipewipe and MWM followed up with paid campaigns. Today, Swipewipe has over 1 million monthly active users.Through the deal, O’Kane will be able to share in its ongoing profits, in addition to being able to sell his app to MWM. "We feel good about it. We're not exhausted at all. I will let us add a lot of things in the application because ... I see that we are just scraping the surface. "O'Kane said." But in reality, images are our life. And who doesn't have a messy camera? We have all these good memories and things trapped in these photo grids. I want people not only to clean them up, but to allow these memories to resurface and be re-contextualized.

MWM has been an app development studio for over a decade, developing around 30 apps in categories like music, painting, painting, video editing and more, including the most downloaded DJ app Edjing Mix. Just before the Covid-19 outbreak, MWM raised around €50 million in Series B funding and decided to transform from just an app development studio to an app publisher, using their 10 years of app development expertise to help others succeed. As a publisher, MWM currently works with over 350 app development studios. To date, the catalog of the same applications has grown to 50.

"The idea is very simple. We help developers find keys to unlock the App Store. "It's easy. We are working with them on three main levels: monetization, product and user acquisition, which are the three main pillars of unlocking the App Store.

To find apps, MWM uses marketing intelligence tools to search for apps with good KPIs, good ratings, and good usage. It then contacted developers with the promise of potentially more than tripling the app's revenue. To run the tests, the developers integrated the MWM SDK, which allowed the company to run basic user acquisition tests. Depending on business results, the developer may be awarded a contract. The company continues to support the developer with its own technologies, including AI technology, to further expand the app.While Swipewipe isn't MWM's first acquisition — it's acquired other studios in the past — it's the biggest, and MWM hopes its name will be visible to other developers looking for help in a similar way. MWM hopes the deal with Swipewipe will be a good demonstration of what it can do for developers who are currently struggling to succeed as a small team due to privacy changes and more from Apple and Google.

"This one is different than before. So we want to take our skills and our 10-year journey and help [developers] build something bigger. We share the same mission: we want to put apps and great experiences in the hands of millions of people,” Hironde said.