We heard about GoLured through the grapevine, and got in touch with developer Tris Le to find out more about this viral hit.
//SN: What’s the premise of Go Lured?
Go Lured helps Pokemon Go players find/track Pokemon based on their current location (detected via GPS). It helps local players know nearby hunting spots and tourists to explore the Pokemon scene in a new city. It also allows players to team up with others to take down and/or defend a local gym together.
The goal is to build a global PG community on Go Lured.
//SN: How or why did the idea occur to you?
I started this because I saw the pain point – there isn’t too much useful information on where to go pokehunting in each city. Google will tell you a few famous spots (which might also be not up to date), while Facebook requires joining a closed group and posting the “where?” question over and over again. I think it would be nice to have a web app where you can find good locations updated by fellow players all over the world.
Also, I do find that Go Lured is helpful because it shows specific places and distances from your current location. You can even sort them by distance to find out the nearest nests.
Before I started, I saw some people build and maintain a google doc sheet but I think it can be presented much more friendly and easy to use on the web.
//SN: How did you progress from there to a working web app?
I spent 10 full days putting things together. I was the only developer so there were a couple of sleepless nights but I did enjoy that. Also, I was based at UWA when developing this so I could ask the students what they think is good or bad, and change on the fly.
//SN: What sort of visitor numbers are you getting?
Go Lured accumulated around 15,000 pageviews in the first 10 days of launch and has around 10-20 active users on the site at a time. Currently it works with a zero-budget marketing plan, traffic is mainly through virality and word of mouth so there are still a lot people who haven’t heard of the site. I’m still figuring out how this can be improved, perhaps I will need somebody to join and help grow the app.
I have only launched in Australia and Singapore so there are still a lot more markets to reach out to.
//SN: Do you have a business model for it? Is it working?
Currently no – there would be no business model until there are 20x more active users on the site at a time. But I did think about linking the players with local businesses – both of them suddenly have many things in common since this game got released.
//SN: Any spending on the app so far?
Starting a viral app doesn’t have to be expensive. Apart from my own time investment, I spent $15 for the domain name, and $12 for the admin of Pokemon Go Brisbane Facebook page for a pinned post. I was lucky enough to have the support from the Facebook group admins of PG Perth, Adelaide and Sydney. I’m still maintaining a zero-budget marketing plan for the time being.
//SN: what’s next for the site?
The next step is to put more effort in getting traction, this will go in conjunction with making sure the web app offers enough value so that visited users will come back using it.
After Australia, I will launch the site in the UK and US.
//SN: is there anything the startup community can do to help?
I certainly need some help from the community, especially in business development: launch the app in new regions and start building community through social media pages. Getting traction is very important at this stage so I would love to know if anybody is interested in joining Go Lured to give this a boost.
