Starting in 2018, Khatabook achieved growth at an unfathomable rate. Right now, this digital ledger app has more than 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store with 4.5 ratings.
In this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about getting your digital ledger app, like Khatabook, developed.
We will shed some light on its app demographics, business and revenue model, app features, and last but not least, the cost to develop a mobile app like Khatabook. Hence, keep reading; you’ll probably find what you are looking for.
Khatabook is an indigenous mobile app of India and in a sense, it is made for India only. To be precise, this app is made for small business owners like shopkeepers of grocery stores, department stores, or any other type of small shop. In India, it is quite common to buy goods from such stores and pay money later.
Hence, it becomes a tedious task for shop owners to manage the records of pending credits. Therefore, every shopkeeper has to manage a ledger book for such records, which is a manual task and contains a lot of room for calculation and management errors.
In the past couple of years, India has experienced a revolutionary paradigm shift in digitization. Citizens from rural areas have started using smartphones to enjoy their features and marvel at their applications.
From social media to fintech apps like banking and loan lending apps started flooding the app market. And India experiences a massive surge in fintech app downloads.
Khatabook is an app with a simple and familiar user interface. It helped shopkeepers manage their ledgers right on their smartphones. This app also allowed them to send text messages and WhatsApp messages to their customers to remind them about their due payments.
The app worked and shopkeepers loved it. It reduced potential errors in manual tasks and made the entire procedure automatic.
According to the Economic Times, Khatabook is in its last stage of closing a $70 million funding round, which will take the company’s valuation somewhere between $275 million and $300 million. They have received funding from DST Global, GGV Capital, Sequoia India, Tencent, and other companies.
As far as reach is concerned, Khatabook users are from more than 10,000 towns and cities all over the country. In addition, Khatabook claims to make due payment retrieval 3 times faster. Despite its very recent inception, Khatabook has been regarded with powerful stats and overwhelming public response.
According to the officials, Khatabook is expecting to see growth, reaching 20 million downloads by the end of 2020. Hence, it is quite evident that Khatabook is exploring a potential fintech venture in India. The list of investors seems to claim this fact as well.
Although, the niche market ventured into by Khatabook is not very well charted yet, the massive growth of the company has earned the attention of companies like OkCredit, which is the biggest competitor of Khatabook right now.
The business model of the Khatabook app is as simple as it can be. A shopkeeper can easily register with an email ID and phone number. With a simple process, he/she can add customers with their names, contact number, and payment information.
The payment information is categorized into two parts, A. What You Get, and B. What You Give. As the name of the categories suggests, What You Get is the payment that a customer owes the user, and What You Give is the payment that the user needs to return to the customer, or the advanced money paid by the customer.
All the information is saved within the app and connected to the account details. The system automatically makes a backup of the entire information. Hence, it is pretty much like a ledger, but in a smartphone. Its simplicity is one of the reasons it is famous among its millions of users.
From within the app, users or shopkeepers can send text reminders of due payment via SMS or WhatsApp.
The text message contains a payment link as well, which allows customers to pay their dues with just a few taps on the screen. Khatabook supports UPI; therefore, shopkeepers can receive payments right into their bank accounts.
This simple business model helps shopkeepers get their due payment back three times faster while maintaining a healthy customer relationship.
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Currently, the Khatabook company is still exploring ways of earning revenue from the app. Therefore, it is not easy to say what revenue they are incorporating right now. However, they are consistently working on it.
For example, the company has applied for their Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license, which indicates that lending can be a part of revenue generation for the company in the near future.
That being said, let’s talk about some potential revenue models for an app like Khatabook:
Smartphone users are willing to spend on premium apps now more than ever. Therefore, it can be a good option to earn revenue from paid services. Khatabook can offer customers some advanced features for which they can pay either in a one-time payment method or in a subscription-based model.
In-app ads are a very common way of generating revenue with the help of third-party advertisements. Showing customers advertisements for related services and products of related 3rd party services and products is a very sustainable method of swelling revenue by a significant margin.
Khatabook app is currently free to use for its users. However, to earn revenue on behalf of the service provided, the commission-based revenue model seems lucrative. A fixed percentage of commission can be deducted from every transaction made between customers and shopkeepers.
This commission-based model can be applied to shopkeepers whose number of transactions exceeds a fixed limit.
Now, let’s discuss what you need to develop an app like Khatabook.
To develop an app like OkCredit or Khatabook, you need a team of experts and professionals who possess a significant amount of experience in financial app development.
When you find the right team for your app development project, you will be left with two choices: either you go for freelance app developers or you can hire expert developers from app development companies.
Now, going for freelancer developers may cost relatively less than going for a certified company. But chances are, you may get a good quality of work or you may not. Either you get a phenomenal quality of work or you may end up wasting your precious time and money.
There’s neither a guarantee nor any security with the freelancers. However, there are some very good freelancers but that can be a gamble for you.
On the other hand, a reputed app development company has to maintain its reputation and beat its competitors in the market for mobile app development.
Therefore, they will have a team of the best mobile app developers, designers, and other professionals. Hence, they are committed to providing their customers with out-of-the-box products and solutions.
A company will always want to retain customers in order to maintain a healthy customer relationship. In order to achieve that, they rely on their quality of work, seamless communication, competitive development costs, and remarkable after-sales support.
Now, the choice is yours.
Be it a social media app, a loan lending app, or an accounting app like Khatabook development, there are certain members who collectively contribute to the successful development of any app you can imagine.
A team that is responsible for app development assists you from the evaluation of your idea to the execution of the plan.
They are not there to just develop an app for you that you asked for; instead, the right team will always want to explore multidimensional opportunities pertaining to your accounting app.
This helps in developing a more complete app that always stays one step ahead of the competition. Let’s find out who are the most important members of this team:
Being aware of technologies that are related to app development is more necessary than you think. And it is twice as important to choose the right technology stack for the app development of an app like Khatabook.
Because this technology stack is going to help you in the future expansion of the business or if you wish to change the business model or make any radical changes.
Choosing the right technologies helps in all transitions and customizations.
Now comes the question you have been patiently waiting for. But wait, is it possible to answer this question if there are a lot of procedures involved in the process of app development? The answer is, no!
The thing is, app development starts with an idea, and what idea you have may expand once you consult with an app development firm.
It may contract or expand during the app’s development as well. There could be revisions or changes in the plan in the middle of the development, too. On average, app development takes 6 to 12 months.
Hence, during this time, a hefty amount of alterations and reconsiderations take place. Therefore, it is not possible to offer a fixed amount. There are a lot of factors that affect the overall development of the app.
These factors are:
We have already talked about this. But it is important to discuss it again when we are talking about the cost of app development like Khatabook.
Hiring freelancers can be a cheaper option than choosing an app development company. Therefore, it depends on your preference If there is a certified, experienced, and trusted freelancer, then go for it.
It may save you some money. However, if this plan doesn’t go well, then it can be a very expensive option. If you seek assurance, trust, and security, then you should go to a company.
Today, there are a number of mobile platforms available in the market. For example, Android, iOS, and wearables. Now is quite a decisive moment for you to examine your audience and figure out how many platforms you need for your application.
A basic rule of thumb says that an app must be developed for as many platforms as possible. First, it increases consistency.
Then it also ensures that customers with any mobile platform preference can get access to your app. That means a wider customer base.
The app is developed for each platform separately. Therefore, the cost of development increases as the number of platforms increases.
Choosing between a minimum viable product (MVP) and a Full-fledged app is certainly your own decision. It depends on why do you need an app. If your idea applies a different approach and you are looking for investors, then for the time being, the MVP app can be a good option. It has basic functions and a normal design.
It is pretty much the app that just works. Therefore, it costs relatively less than its counterpart, a full-fledged app.
The full-fledged app is an advanced app with all modern and powerful features, attractive UX/UI designs, smooth animations, and many other functionalities that engage users and compete with market competition. Hence, it costs more than an MVP app.
Simply put, the number of features translates into the number of efforts put into the development of the app. That means a greater number of features mean more effort. Therefore, more features will cost you more money.
If your budget allows, then a higher number of features is a good option because users measure the quality and worth of an app by the number of useful features it provides. However, if your budget does not allow that, then you can always go for only the essential features.
Yes, the geography of the place where the app is being developed can vary the fintech app development cost by a huge margin.
The thing is, the economic condition of each country is different. Therefore, the cost of app development and the hourly charges of professionals are different too. Rest assured, the change in prices does not always mean a lower quality of work.
Web and app development are global businesses and every company competes with the rest of the companies from all around the world. So, the standards of quality of work are global. This is why the quality of work is not compromised at all.
So to shed some contrast on the matter, let’s talk about the hourly development cost of app development around the world. In the USA, the hourly app development charge is somewhere between, $150 and $200, in the UK, it is between $120 – $160, in Australia, it is between $80 – $150. However, in Asian countries, the hourly cost varies between $25 and $50.
From this example, you can assume how much a geographical location of app development can affect the development cost. This is the reason most entrepreneurs and company owners choose to outsource app development projects to Asian countries like India.
So, these are the most common factors that may affect the development cost of an app like Khatabook. However, to get an idea of the cost of development, let’s assume that a person is getting her app developed for Android and that it is an MVP app.
This app is outsourced to India. Then it may cost somewhere around $10,000 to $15,000. If that person wishes to go for more features and more mobile platforms, then the cost of app development would increase as well.
This is almost everything you need to know about how to develop an app like Khatabook. If you still have any doubt, feel free to contact our app development experts for consultation.
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