"What's this app called? Meteo what?": an Ecuadorian weather account sold its own video-making tool to its followers
What it is A Spanish-language weather animation map app made by the operator of an Ecuadorian weather and earthquake content account. It covers satellite clouds, wind fields, hurricanes, El Niño and earthquakes. Free with ads; subscription is $6 a month.
Why it took off The account's own Facebook (about 960K followers) and TikTok (170K followers) post daily videos rendered with this toolkit. During the El Niño rains, one video got 790K views, and viewers kept asking what the app was and downloaded it. Weather charts in small countries like Ecuador are also an easy bar to clear.
CHow you could follow Copying a weather app doesn't work. What's worth learning is the structure: if you run a vertical content account, split the rendering tool you use for your own videos into an app for viewers and a creation tool for peers, then build it for a region or niche it doesn't cover, and get it ready before the big event hits.
- Data (updated daily) · launched 2026-10-21 · US store rating 0 · charted in 11-08 of 16 stores
iOS · Overall Top Free rank · by store Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-06 (10 days, 6 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that dayiOS · Best category rank · US store Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-06 (10 days, 5 observations). Best rank across each day's category chartsiOS · Number of stores charted (top 200 on any chart) Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-06 (10 days, 6 observations)
METEOPAINT CLIMA is a Spanish-language weather animation map app. It was listed in Oct 21, hit #5 on the Ecuador App Store overall free chart in Nov 3, and also charts on the weather charts in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico. Worldwide it has only 1 ratings. Downloads didn't come from the store. They came from a weather account with nearly a million Facebook followers, and the timing caught a record-setting El Niño rainstorm. This piece covers how it took off, where the money comes from, what you can learn from it, and why most people can't follow it.
A 790K-view rainstorm video
On the night of Nov 1, it was pouring rain in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The TikTok account @alertasycuriosidades posted a video captioned: "6 hours, the sky over Ecuador went from clear to a giant storm. The worst is still to come after midnight: one model says 106 mm, another says over 260 mm. Which one is right?" The visuals were an animated cloud map and rainfall map.
By Nov 6, the video had 790K views, 60K likes and 600 comments (TikTok, 11-06). The most-liked comment was "it's raining everywhere except at the hydro dam," with a stream of "my house is already flooded, you say the worst hasn't come yet." Mixed in were a few different ones: "meteopaint" and "what's this app called??????? Meteo what???".
Two days later, on Nov 3, METEOPAINT CLIMA entered the Ecuador overall free chart at #5. It had already been ranking #2 on the weather free chart for several days (App Store charts, 10-28 to 11-06).
What it is
An iPhone app that turns global weather into an animated map: GOES, Himawari and Meteosat satellite clouds, wind and pressure from models like GFS, ECMWF and ICON, rainfall, sea temperature, El Niño, wildfires, global hurricane tracks and forecast cones, official warnings from each country, plus earthquakes and fault lines. Functionally it's the same kind of product as Windy, Zoom Earth and Ventusky, and it isn't better than them.
The money side: free to download, with ads and only 5 days of forecast in the free version. New users get 7 days of Premium without a card. After that it's $6 a month or $60 a year, via Apple in-app purchase (per meteopaint.site terms). 11-06 It ranks #5 on the Ecuador weather Top Grossing chart, and also has placings on the weather Top Grossing charts in Paraguay, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, which suggests some people pay once the trial ends. How many do isn't visible from the outside.
In half a month it went from 1.1.3 to 1.1.15 on the App Store (11-06). Most updates fixed notifications, the radar, and switching between satellite views.
Who is behind it
The developer is John Alexander Villota Herrera, from Ecuador, who runs the weather and earthquake channel "Alertas y Curiosidades": about 957k followers on Facebook, 172k followers and 1.43M likes on TikTok, 13.5k subscribers and 500 videos on YouTube (each platform's profile, 11-06).
The key point: this app probably wasn't built first (inference). Under the same brand there is a desktop app, MeteoPaint Studio (Windows, Mac, Linux), which renders weather and earthquake data into 4K or 9:16 vertical videos, with an "AI director" to help produce them. It's sold to weather creators and media at $6 a month (meteopaint.site). His own videos are made with it. TikTok captions often end with "Capas: MeteoPaint" (layers: MeteoPaint).
The mobile version does one thing: the map fans see in his videos can now be held and viewed on their own phones.
He also has an earthquake early-warning app, Radar Earth. It launched on iOS in September, and the Android version has 87k installs and has kept climbing, up over 1,600 in the last 7 days (Google Play, 11-06). The first line of the Facebook page bio pushes it.
Where users come from
- His own accounts warmed up the launch before it shipped. Confirmed. On Facebook he posted "Meteopaint CLIMA goes live in 72 hours," then after launch posted a tutorial on "how to use Meteopaint on iOS and its hidden features," and said more tutorials would follow.
- Every video is a demo. Confirmed. The footage is rendered with MeteoPaint, the captions name the tool, and commenters ask what it's called. Free advertising, no spend.
- Heavy rain. Confirmed. 2026's El Niño was a record-strength event (Infobae 10-21 coverage, possibly lasting until 2027 March). Ecuador's meteorological service forecast two rounds of heavy rain, 10-25 to 28 and 11-01 to 03. His 11-05 video said the Niño 3.4 region was 3.3 °C above normal and waters off Ecuador were 6 °C above. In the same period, the #1 free weather app in Ecuador was another local rain alert app, "amaru." Demand rose across the board.
- Viral videos drive the installs. The timing lines up: 11-01 that video, 790k views, 11-03 hit the overall chart at #5; 10-26 the Chile EF-2 tornado one, 220k views, and around then the Chile and Argentina stores' weather charts took off.
- Returning users. Inference: Radar Earth's earthquake users and weather users are likely the same people. I haven't found direct evidence of cross-promotion inside the apps.
- I found no paid ads, media coverage, or X discussion. The one media mention of the account is a report where Ecuador's meteorological service experts debunked a "cold wave warning" it posted (Radio Centro). The account is big, and it has clickbait controversy.
How hard is it to reach #2 in weather?
Not hard. The top 10 free weather apps in Ecuador have these review counts on the App Store: AccuWeather 499, Meteored 179, Windy 148, Zoom Earth 89, Ventusky 64 (App Store, 11-06). A few hundred downloads can get you into the top spots. What's harder is reaching the overall free chart at #5, and that held for only a day or two before it dropped to 41, 168, then 206.
So this isn't a huge hit. It's a small country, a rainy season, and a big account coming together at a peak.
Who it's competing with
| Product | Launched | Scale (Ecuador store, 11-06) | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windy.com | 2016 | 148 reviews, #2 in weather Top Grossing | More professional, English-speaking community, no local content |
| Zoom Earth | 2023(iOS) | 89 rating | Mainly satellites and hurricanes, no earthquakes |
| Ventusky | 2017 | 64 rating | Model visualization from a European team |
| AccuWeather / Meteored | 2008–2012 | 179–499 ratings | Traditional forecasts, weak graphics |
| amaru: alertas de lluvia | 2026-08 | #1,22 in weather Top Free, rated | Local rain alerts in Ecuador, simple features |
I found no copycats building on it.
If it were you
One-line verdict: This app took off thanks to two things you don't have: a near-million-follower account posting weather every day, and a record-strength El Niño. Building a Spanish weather map yourself, you have no audience and no guarantee of the next heavy rain. What you can learn is its structure: build a content account first, make the content with your own tools, then sell those tools to the people who watch the content.
Who it suits: Someone who already runs a vertical content account (weather, earthquakes, flights, astronomy, tides, fishing, or stocks all work) and makes their videos with visuals they render themselves, with code or software.
Who it doesn't suit: Indie developers with no traffic who want to build a "better weather app." In the store you'd be fighting Windy and AccuWeather for search terms, and no matter how good the features, users wouldn't notice.
How to do it:
- Split the rendering pipeline you use for video into two products: a mobile app for viewers (ads plus subscription), and a desktop or web tool for peers (monthly subscription, exporting vertical video directly).
- Brand every video with the tool name and keep the visual style fixed, so viewers recognize "this is the map from that app" at a glance.
- Pick a region he doesn't cover. Brazil in Portuguese, Indonesian, the Philippines' typhoon season, India's monsoon all have local weather accounts that may not have their own tools. Partnering with those accounts is faster than building an audience from zero.
How to get users: The content account is the channel itself. Push releases and tutorials around disaster seasons, and pin the download link in the comments (this time people asked in the comments "what's the app called" and "post the download"). Aim for the top spot in a small country's weather chart, and use a screenshot as proof.
When is the window: For him, the window is this El Niño rainy season. Ecuadorian coverage says it may last until next March. For you, the window is before the next big event in your own niche. Build the tool before the event hits, then when it does, just publish content.
What would show I got it wrong: If after the rainy season it stays in the top 10 of weather charts in Ecuador and Peru, with ratings climbing into the hundreds, that means the product has retention of its own, not just an account plus a rainstorm. Then a "localized Spanish weather visualization" is a real gap worth filling. And if the Android version reaches Google Play and quickly passes Radar Earth's 87k installs, that also shows demand is bigger than this analysis suggests.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Windy.com iOS 2016 Global top weather visualization; ec 148 reviews, #2 in ec weather Top Grossing Windy is more professional but English and general-purpose. MeteoPaint has a Spanish-language Latin America angle, combines weather, earthquakes, and hurricanes, can export video, and comes with its own traffic channel. Zoom Earth iOS 2023 ec 89 reviews, #9 in ec weather Top Free Mainly satellites and hurricanes. No earthquakes, no creative tools, no local content channel. Ventusky iOS 2017 ec 64 reviews Similar model visualization, European team, no Latin American localization or earthquake features AccuWeather / The Weather Channel / Meteored iOS 2008-2012 Big company, ec 179–499 reviews Traditional forecasts, weak visualization amaru: alertas de lluvia iOS 2026-08-20 #1,22 in ec weather Top Free Local rain alerts in Ecuador, simple features. It rides the same El Niño rainstorm demand. My Earthquake/Hurricane Alerts (JRustonApps), SkyAlert, Sismo Detector iOS 2013-2019 Consistently in the top 5 for mx weather/earthquake apps Single hazard type. MeteoPaint covers them all in one app. Max Studio(The Weather Company) Other Broadcast-grade weather graphics systems MeteoPaint Studio is the affordable version for individual creators ($6/month) - Where users come from
- Confirmed Own Facebook page Alertas y Curiosidades (957K followers): a pre-launch post "En 72 Horas sale…Meteopaint CLIMA," an iOS tutorial, and an Android launch post
- Confirmed Own TikTok account (172K followers), where the content is the demo: captions consistently credit "Capas: MeteoPaint"; 11-01 the Ecuador heavy-rain video reached 790k views, and the app rose to #5 overall free in Ecuador 11-03
- Confirmed Platform event: record El Niño rainstorms: Infobae 10-21; INAMHI forecast heavy rain from 10-25 to 28 and from 11-01 to 03. At the same time, the local rain app amaru topped the charts.
- Confirmed YouTube / Instagram / website alertasycuriosidades.com: YouTube has 13.5k subscribers and 567 videos; the website and meteopaint.site link to each other
- Inference Cross-promotion from the sister app Radar Earth to existing users: same developer, same audience. The Facebook bio leads with Radar Earth. No direct evidence of in-app promotion.
- Inference Paid ads / media / X: none found
Why METEOPAINT CLIMA (iOS id6821247678) took off
Research date 2026-11-06. Data: our appstore / googleplay libraries (since 2026-10-28), Apple lookup, TikHub (TikTok), Jina search and web reading. Storefronts checked: all-region recall cards (15 Latin American storefronts plus Spain, on category charts), with detailed review of ec / pe / py / mx.
One line
A weather and earthquake app built by Ecuadorian doctor John Alexander Villota Herrera, who runs the channel "Alertas y Curiosidades" (about 957k followers on Facebook, 172k on TikTok). It makes its own animated weather maps. It didn't take off from organic store traffic. It took off from a large owned account driving traffic, plus the timing of a record-strength El Niño bringing heavy rain to Ecuador in 2026, and the very low bar to reach the top of small-country weather charts like Ecuador's.
1. What it is
- Free on iOS, listed 2026-10-21. Now at version 11-06, iterated from 1.1.3 to 1.1.15 (Apple lookup, currentVersionReleaseDate 2026-11-06). Features: GOES/Himawari/Meteosat satellite animations, GFS/ECMWF/AIFS/ICON wind fields, rainfall, El Niño, global hurricane tracks, official alerts, earthquakes plus fault lines, and 3D flight simulation.
- Monetization: the free version shows AdMob ads and only 5 days of forecast. The first use unlocks 7 days of Premium free (timed on the server, no card needed). Subscriptions are $6/month or $60/year through Apple in-app purchase (meteopaint.site/terminos).
- The same brand also has a desktop version, MeteoPaint Studio (Windows/Mac/Linux). It turns weather and earthquake data into animated videos exportable in 4K or vertical 9:16, with an "AI director." It targets weather content creators and media, offers a 3-day trial with no card, and has the same price for subscriptions, with Paddle handling payments (meteopaint.site homepage, /descargar). In other words, the toolset started as the production tool he used to make his own videos, and the mobile app is an extension for consumers.
- The developer's other app: Radar Earth Terremoto (earthquake early warning, listed on iOS 2026-09-10, 24 reviews in Ecuador, ranked #6–25 in ec weather Top Free. Android package com.radarearth.app has 87,430 installs, up 7 over the last 1,629 days, googleplay library 2026-11-06). The first line of the Facebook page bio is "Sismos al instante con Radar Earth" (Earthquakes instantly with Radar Earth).
2. Performance data (appstore database)
| Store | Best rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ec Ecuador | Weather Top Free #2 (since 11-01, 6 days in a row), overall Top Free #11-03 #5, Weather Top Grossing #5 (11-06) | 10-28 overall Top Free 77, then dropped off, 11-03 climbed to 5, then 41→168→206 |
| pe Peru | Weather Top Free 2–11 | |
| py Paraguay | Weather Top Free from 4,11-03, then Weather Top Grossing 11–21 | |
| mx Mexico | Weather Top Free 16–182,11-05, then Weather Top Grossing 32–99 |
- It has only 1 ratings worldwide (as of 11-06), so absolute download numbers are small, and users aren't coming from store search.
- The bar is low: the established apps ranking in Ecuador's Weather Top Free top 10 have only dozens to hundreds of ratings in ec (Windy.com 148, AccuWeather 499, Meteored 179, Ventusky 64, Zoom Earth 89; appstore library 11-06). So #2 in Weather doesn't take much volume; the overall Top Free #5 is the meaningful signal, and it only lasted a day or two.
3. Growth: where users came from
- Its own social media channels drive installs (confirmed). Facebook "Alertas y curiosidades" with 957K followers (FB page, read via 2026-11-06), TikTok @alertasycuriosidades with 172,163 followers and 1.44M likes (TikHub), YouTube with 13.5k subscribers and 567 videos, plus Instagram and the site alertasycuriosidades.com. Before and after launch they ran promo and tutorial posts on FB: "En 72 Horas sale La nueva aplicación Meteopaint CLIMA", "Tutorial de como manejar Meteopaint clima en iOS y sus funciones secretas", "haremos tutoriales de como manejar meteopaint clima", "Hoy se lanzó en Android la app de meteopaint…" (all facebook.com/alertasycuriosidades1 posts, from Jina search results).
- Every piece of content is a demo of the app (confirmed). The captions on recent TikTok videos almost all read "Capas: MeteoPaint" or "esto es lo que ve MeteoPaint…", and the visuals are animations rendered by the App/Studio. The content is the ad, at zero cost.
- Viral video lines up with chart climb (strong match, causation not proven). 11-01 posted the Spanish clip "En 6 horas pasó de cielo despejado a una tormenta gigante sobre Ecuador…", 790,332 views and 60k likes (TikHub). Two days later the 11-03 app hit #5 on Ecuador's overall Top Free chart. 10-26 A Chile Requínoa EF-2 tornado video drew 224k views, and the app also charted in the Chile and Argentina stores.
- 平台事件/时机(确认):2026 年 El Niño 强度创纪录,INAMHI 预报 10-25~28、11-01~03 两轮强降雨;Infobae 10-21 报道「El Niño podría alcanzar una intensidad récord… hasta marzo de 2027」;Primicias 报道 El Niño 2026-2027 进入成熟期、海温创纪录。他的视频写着 11-03 Niño 3.4 区 +3.3 °C、厄瓜多尔外海 +6 °C。暴雨直接把厄瓜多尔/秘鲁北部用户推向天气 App——同一时期 ec 天气免费第 1 是本地新 App「amaru: alertas de lluvia」(2026-08-20 上线),也印证需求暴涨。
- Existing user migration: Radar Earth (earthquakes) already has a user base (87k Android installs), same publisher, same audience, so cross-promotion is possible (inference, no direct evidence).
- Ads, media coverage, and discussion on X: none found. x-radar search for meteopaint returned 60 posts in 0 days; no TrustMRR, no founder revenue posts. The media only mentioned this account while debunking it (Radio Centro: an INAMHI expert debunked a cold-front warning posted by "Alertas y Curiosidades"), which shows the account has reach but also some clickbait controversy.
4. Competitors
| Competitors | Platform | Launched | Scale | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windy.com | iOS/Android/web | 2016 | Global leading visual weather (ec 148 ratings, ec Weather Top Grossing 2) | Also wind and model animations; Windy is more professional with an English community. MeteoPaint is Spanish-language, Latin America-focused, combines earthquakes + hurricanes + El Niño in one app, and can export videos. |
| Zoom Earth | iOS/web | 2023(iOS) | ec 89 reviews | Mostly satellite and hurricanes, no earthquakes, no creation tools |
| Ventusky | iOS/Android/web | 2017 | ec 64 reviews | Model visualization, European team, no local content channels |
| AccuWeather / Weather Channel / Meteored | iOS/Android | 2008–2012 | Big company, ec 179–499 reviews | Mainly traditional forecasts, weak visualization |
| amaru: alertas de lluvia | iOS | 2026-08-20 | ec Weather Top Free #1,22, 7 ratings, +9 | Simple local rain alerts; MeteoPaint is a full-featured map |
| My Earthquake/Hurricane Alerts (JRustonApps), SkyAlert, Sismo Detector | iOS/Android | 2013–2019 | Earthquake apps consistently in the top 5 in mx | Single hazard type; MeteoPaint merges weather, earthquakes, and hurricanes |
| Max Studio (The Weather Company) and other TV weather graphics systems | Professional software | — | TV-station grade | MeteoPaint Studio is the affordable version for individual creators ($6/month) |
- Copycats: none found.
5. Why it took off
- Distribution: the publisher is one of the largest weather/earthquake content creators in the Spanish-speaking Latin American market, with 957k on FB and 170k on TikTok. A new app had a ready-made audience on day one, with no need for organic store traffic (only 1 ratings globally but charting in several countries is the evidence).
- Timing: record El Niño plus two rounds of heavy rain in Ecuador from late October to early November, when users most need to "understand where the rain comes from."
- Product: the app and the videos use the same rendering engine. Viewers see in the video the exact visuals the app can show them, so the path from watching to downloading is very short. They also shipped more than a dozen versions in half a month, quickly fixing notifications and adding radar/satellite switching.
- Chart bar: the weather category in a small country has a low bar, so a few hundred downloads can place an app near the top. Charting in Top Grossing suggests some people pay for subscriptions (after the 7-day free trial ends), but the scale is unknown.
6. Differentiation
It's not the features themselves: Windy, Zoom Earth, and Ventusky all have more mature wind and satellite animations. What's different is that it was built by a content creator, as a tool to serve their own content: (a) a Spanish-language, Latin American perspective (El Niño, Ecuadorian cities at 3 m, official national warnings); (b) weather, earthquakes, and hurricanes in one app; (c) a desktop Studio that exports vertical TikTok videos directly, creating a loop of "tool → content → traffic → tool." This loop, not feature differences, is why it took off. Feature differences only determine retention.
7. What to borrow
- Build a vertical content account first, then build an app that lets viewers play with the visuals you show in your videos. Put the tool's name in video watermarks and captions consistently.
- Sell the same rendering engine through two channels: B2B (creator Studio subscriptions via Paddle) and B2C (mobile app ads and subscriptions).
- Watch for platform events (disaster season), ship updates and publish tutorials in bursts, and target low-bar category charts for "chart credibility."
8. Uncertain
- Actual downloads, subscriber counts, and revenue (Apple doesn't disclose these; the chart placement is in a low-bar category, so it may be only a small number of subscriptions).
- Retention after the El Niño rainy season; whether the Android version is on Google Play (the website says "Próximamente", the FB post says it's live, but MeteoPaint isn't in our Play library).
- Geographic breakdown of FB followers (the page address says New York NY, but the content targets Ecuador/Latin America and US Spanish speakers).
- The publisher has a record of being officially debunked. Will questions about credibility affect the app's reputation?
Sources
- apps.apple.com/app/id6821247678, Apple lookup (country=ec)
- meteopaint.site/, /terminos, /descargar, /noticias/editorial/
- www.facebook.com/alertasycuriosidades1/ (957K followers) and posts: /posts/en-72-horas-sale-la-nueva-aplicación-meteopaint-clima…/1576406167846966, /posts/tutorial-de-como-manejar-meteopaint-clima-en-ios…/1578804294273820
- TikTok @alertasycuriosidades (TikHub, 2026-11-06); video 7703383842870136078 (790K views)
- www.youtube.com/@alertasycuriosidades
- www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2026/10/21/el-nino-po… ;servicios.inamhi.gob.ec/fenomeno-el-nino/ ;primicias.ec El Niño 2026-2027
- Radio Centro debunk post: facebook.com/radiocentroec/posts/…/1274484634267922
- appstore library app_day / app_profile / v_chart (2026-10-28~11-06); googleplay library com.radarearth.app