In his free time, raising flowers and grass has become another hobby in addition to popular recreational activities, and it is gradually getting younger. According to Data Bridge Market Research, the global flower market will grow at a CAGR of 8.60% from 2021 to 2028, and the market capitalization will climb to 7.062 billion euros. The expansion of the market size also means an increase in demand, especially in European countries represented by the Netherlands, the advantages of geographical resources and climate and environment have enhanced the local people's love and popularity of planting and breeding plants, and they have also continued to develop from hobbies to professional directions.
Recently, a plant identification overseas app, PictureThis, has caught our attention in terms of global downloads and revenue. Since February this year, in just 5 months, the global single-day downloads have gone from 3W to 12W, and the single-day revenue has soared from 6W to 34W. Exploring the reasons behind it found that in addition to the growth cycle of the plant itself, it may also be related to the update of the PictureThis version. The AI function in the application is constantly upgraded, and with a simple way of taking pictures, you can obtain plant-related knowledge and diagnose difficult problems in growth, which is equivalent to providing an "online teacher" for its enthusiasts to give solutions in the process of planting and raising plants. Can plant-related applications created through iterative customer acquisition, technology reuse, and multiple scenarios survive in the overseas market for a long time? Is there still a chance to subdivide the track?
The blue ocean of market space
By looking at the global best-selling education list, it can be found that PictureThis's most popular regions are mainly concentrated in the northern hemisphere, and are represented by Europe and North America, which is inseparable from the local idyllic lifestyle.
In the western countryside, the unique geographical location and favorable climatic conditions have led to an increase in plant varieties and numbers. Almost every household has its own farm garden, which can raise flowers and grass and cultivate plants in a large area, without constraints and restrictions. The increase in the number of supply side has also made the local people have higher requirements in terms of demand, how to make the plants grow better, healthier and longer has become their main concern, and the launch of PictureThis also happens to meet this demand.
The app was born in 2017, but it only started around 2021 that the number of downloads and revenue began to increase gradually. Interestingly, income figures show a clear cyclical characteristic, rising sharply in the first half of each year and falling sharply in the second half of the year, which is presumably related to the growth cycle of most plants.
（2017.9-2020.5 PictureThis全球总收入，图源：点点数据）
However, this also means that user usage may not be sustainable, and in the second half of the year, when the demand for the application is not high, it is likely to be forgotten or even abandoned by users. As a result, the time to engage users has been cut in half to be able to be commercialized. However, the data shows that PictureThis has withstood the test of cyclical changes, and through continuous exploration in the field of AI, it has gained a relatively stable user base.
Powered by AI technology
In the process of version update, it can be found that in addition to daily functional fixes, AI technology has always been the focus of PictureThis's choice of efforts. From the initial use of AI to identify plants in real time, to obtaining lighting and feeding skills through dialogue, and being able to diagnose plant diseases and provide treatment suggestions with intelligent doctors, each function is developing in the direction of practicality, intelligence, and specialization.
（2024.6.20 PictureThis最近一次版本更新内容）
Fundamentally, it can be considered that the public's demand for specialized cognition of plants has increased, which has prompted the innovation of application functions. Originally, PictureThis focused on plant recognition, and users may have downloaded it out of curiosity or wanting to accumulate knowledge. Especially in European and American countries, where there are many kinds of plants, many users use PictureThis to cultivate children's cognitive ability to the outside world, and take a photo to obtain basic knowledge about plants. And it can accurately identify poisonous plants to avoid safety problems.
However, cultivating plants is not a short-term thing, and some plants take several years or even longer from seed to flowering and fruiting. In this process, plant "disease" is also a common thing, for a series of problems such as discoloration, wilting, pests, etc., the novice of the first cultivation may not know what to do, at this time, the AI intelligent diagnosis function becomes a good "doctor", the same is to upload a picture, you can analyze the cause of the plant, and give a treatment plan. As a result, over a long period of cultivation, the first enthusiast became an experiencer, and the experienced became a professional.
In Europe and the United States, plants are a place of companionship. The pastoral environment makes the cultivation of plants an integral part of many people's lives, especially in the need for professional skills. PictureThis's online expert consultation function also meets personalized needs, and can accurately describe the problem in a 1v1 conversation and get corresponding guidance and suggestions. In addition to communication with experts, communication between enthusiasts forming circles is also an effective means to enhance user stickiness. Plants identified based on geotags allow more users to experience information sharing. Within the app, the community feature also allows users to share photos with each other and exchange nurturing experiences. In order to acquire more users, PictureThis has been continuously operated on social media commonly used overseas, such as Discord, Facebook, and Twitter, to popularize plant-related knowledge and subtly cultivate user habits.
Monetize multiple scenarios
The cyclical nature of plants mentioned above also makes the application have certain limitations in monetization in the second half of each year, which inspires developers to try more diversified business paths, including pricing strategies and underlying reuse. PictureThis offers a 7-day free trial, after which you need to sign up for a membership to continue using it. Diandian data shows that the app is mainly subscription-based, and the price has been rising in recent years, with the annual fee price soaring from $19.99 in 2020 to $39.99 today, combined with global revenue and downloads, it can also be seen that the data peak after 2021 has decreased year by year, which may also have something to do with the price increase.
（2017.9-2020.5 PictureThis全球总下载量，图源：点点数据）
Exploring the company behind PictureThis found that the developer was a Chinese company called Glority, which developed several related software with recognition as the underlying technology, most of which were used in plants, but there was also a relatively large span of receipt management and text scanning. It is a typical successful case of reusing the underlying technology of physical recognition to create more application scenarios.
In terms of data performance, although the most successful of the several plant identification applications developed by Glority is PictureThis, other products also reflect certain differences in functional highlights. Plant Parent focuses on plant care guides, setting reminder functions such as watering, fertilizing, and building; GrowIt focuses on the field of fruits and vegetables, providing planting tips; PlantAI has strengthened its intelligence and launched a chatbot that can harvest solutions to plant-related problems at any time.
Glority has innovated in terms of receipt management and text scanning, and the monetization effect is also very significant. In particular, the Mobile Scanner App, a text scanning app, has generated more than $200w in global revenue since the beginning of this year. Using the saved underlying development costs to create more upper-layer application scenarios effectively makes up for the lack of cyclical decline in plant income and provides more monetization possibilities.
epilogue
In Europe and the United States, the pastoral lifestyle has popularized the cultivation of plants, and the public has higher and higher requirements for their professionalism. However, the cyclical performance of plants greatly shortens the time for related applications to acquire users, which is a big test for commercial monetization. The use of AI technology to develop more intelligent functions can help users solve incurable diseases in the planting process in a timely manner, but at the same time, it may also face an increase in R&D costs, so the user's ability to pay and affordability should also be considered in product pricing. If you want to develop for a long time, it is also an effective means to reproduce the underlying technology and create more upper-level scenarios. In general, although the application of plants overseas is in the blue ocean stage, there is no fierce competition, but there is a certain head effect, and some business opportunities may be found in more subdivided fields.