What is Jodel all about?

Jodel is a social media platform that serves as an uncomplicated and easy-to-use bulletin board for local communities, a live social media feed bursting with news, questions, events, jokes, business information, and sometimes dating opportunities. Since its launch in 2014 in Germany, Jodel's user base has grown rapidly; as of 2022, it boasts around 3 million MAUs and 7.5 million users across 11+ countries in Europe and the Middle East. With Jodel, users can advertise and get noticed, discover in real-time what's happening locally, anonymously chat with people nearby, vote on and boost posts, make new friends, get student discounts, and find and pin useful local information.

Revenue generation: gravitating towards in-app subscriptions

In the beginning, Jodel's growth model was selling feature ads through a direct selling approach. But without a simplified in-app purchase model, advertising opportunities were mostly dominated by big brands or professional advertisers, and local users like a cafe next door or students wanting to promote content didn't have access, slowing the app's monetization.

With the vision to help users instantly engage with their local community, Jodel added three consumable features, "boosts", "reactions", and "colors", usable by anyone, not just businesses. Tim identifies two main benefits of monetizing through in-app purchase of consumables: it helps monetize big spenders since there's no cap on in-app spending, and it's easier to experiment with and remove features sold as consumables without impacting the user experience the way a subscribed feature would.

In June 2022, Jodel added Jodel Plus, a new premium subscription plan bundling ad options that used to be only available through one-time purchase with new features: no ads, 3x boosts per week, 3x plus colors per week, 3x reactions credits per week, Explorer Mode, and app icons. Users can still purchase additional consumable advertisement options on top of the subscription. By combining subscription and consumable IAP options, the app established a more stable revenue stream, unlocked in-app spending limits per user, and expanded target user segments from professional advertisers to anyone looking to promote content. Revenue increased dramatically with the premium plan, which now largely outperforms the consumables.

Episode 10 sneak peek

• On ads: "Our broader monetisation strategy at the beginning, we just started with obviously ads because it's just the model that is most known, and easiest to scale at the beginning."
• On introducing in-app purchases: "Our idea was why don't we just give this same feature, make it available instead of only professional advertisers, also to the cafe next door." "Our approach was to make it very simple. You just go in, you just do Apple Pay, have this app up and running. And you immediately reach people within your location."
• On consumables: "That's why we started off with consumables. It's just easier to experiment with, you're not committing just yet. At the same time, it monetizes very well on the whales."
• On subscription: "The subscription is just like a very recurring revenue, and that is also what many users are more accustomed to."

More about Tim Schmitz

Tim Schmitz is the COO and Co-Founder of Jodel. Over time he has managed all functions of the company, including product, growth, community, tech, and monetization. Prior to Jodel, Tim studied at ESADE Business School and University of Sydney and worked in banking and consulting. During an exchange semester at San Diego State University, Tim met Alessio Avellan Borgmeyer, with whom he founded Jodel together.