When Peter Salom, Josh O’Byrne and Brent Thompson first mapped out a plan for LITT around three years ago, the target demographic for their app was a narrowly defined younger male cohort.
When Peter Salom, Josh O'Byrne and Brent Thompson first mapped out a plan for LITT around three years ago, the target demographic for their app was a narrowly defined younger male cohort.
That was, in part, attributable to the app’s original concept as a male-oriented alternative to Instagram that eschewed intimacy for more exhilarating, sports-related content.
However, their concept of an ideal user shifted as they began to incorporate aspects of digital marketing and gamification into the app. Tellingly, a female acquaintance with a keen interest in fashion and PR encouraged Messrs Salom and Thompson to reconsider how they marketed the app.
“Before we launched, we were doing all these presentations, targeting younger kids and university students,” Mr Thompson told Business News.
“As soon as she saw the gift store and the birthday reminders linked to it … she said, ‘Guys, don’t target this too tightly to the younger crew; I’d hammer this gift store’.”
Having secured $3 million in funding over the startup’s lifetime, the founders have launched the LITT app with a dramatically altered focus, employing monetisation and micro-transactions to keep users of all demographics engaged with the platform.
Unlike other social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook, LITT allows merchants to interact with consumers through augmented reality promotions, and rewards users with in-app cash they can then spend with merchants through the platform.
About 100 businesses have partnered with LITT for these promotions, including Perth venues Bar Lafeyette, Cabinet Noir, and Palace Café.
Mr Salom explained that the ability for users to buy and share gifts through the app had become LITT’s selling point.
“You can buy a gift from a merchant on the platform, whether it’s from a coffee shop or a clothing store or a pub,” he said.
“It’s not just like a plastic voucher.
“It’s online, it’s on your phone, and you never leave it at home.”
Messrs Salom and Thompson acknowledge there has been some scepticism around the app’s monetisation, but reject any suggestion of its illegitimacy.
For one, they cite the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s approval of the app’s internal currency as an assurance of its legitimacy, while pointing to Asterisk Cyber Security’s involvement as proof they have taken the issue of users’ privacy seriously.
And while the business has not yet engaged with institutional investors or actively explored an ASX listing, Mr Salom said the existing business model should keep it financed as the company sought to expand in coming years.
“Our revenue model, with the fact we talk to our merchants and generate money from [them] … interacts with how our user base grows,” he said.
“The more eyeballs you get on the platform the more attractive it is to merchants, and that’s how we start to monetise the project.”
About 3,000 users have signed up to the app, with the expectation this number will reach 5,000 by the end of June.
Mr Salom said the company was on track to expand to the east coast by the end of the year and, if successful in that endeavour, to the US by 2021.
“Depending on how we can get out and travel and get over there and get things set up will be the $64 question, but we’ll be ready to go,” Mr Salom said.
“The tech is all there, and we’ve proved the concept. It’s out in the marketplace, and it’s working.”
