[022]Chase itApp Store / Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, USSubscription + lifetime one-time purchaseData as of 2026-11-08
A lock-screen vocab widget for Japanese learners: the widget is free, the content is subscription
B
It can be done, but don't copy Radish's approach: one language, one market, a free widget with paid content, growth driven by the content.The visible ceiling is a bit over $10K a month (an anonymous Japanese lock-screen app in Singapore, organic, October $14,096). The paid acquisition side of this isn't visible from outside, so don't test it with your own money.Maybe · grade and headline from full write-up · next review 11-15
| Background | Lock-screen vocabulary apps have a decade of history on Korean Android (Wafour at 6.61M installs). iOS 16 lock-screen widgets plus LLM-generated content make it cheaper to build on iPhone. |
|---|---|
| Upside | Every time you pick up your phone and hit a word, that's a vehicle for Duolingo-style "learn 5 minutes a day." The ad visual should be understood in three seconds. |
| Demand | What drives traffic is "Japanese," not "widgets": people in the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong / Taiwan, and US learners of Japanese; the Korean and Chinese versions keep the same template untouched |
| Competition | On Meta, only Radish has been seen running ads for widgets that teach vocabulary. The store has at least 9 individually made Chinese-character / word widgets from the past 2026 years, rated 0–5, with no organic traffic |
| Revenue | The only app with payment-platform-verified revenue: an anonymous Japanese lock-screen app from Singapore, 7–October $9.7k→$10.2k→$18.2k→$14.1k, 1,391 subscription, listed at $100k; Radish revenue is not public |
| Growth | Hourly Kana gets about 40 new ratings a day across all stores (estimated 1,200–2,400 installs a day), volume mostly bought through Meta. Its 179 TikTok videos have only 175 followers |
| Window | Not a window that will close. Radish's decision in mid-November, whether to double down or exit, will show how expensive attention on the store is |
| Who it's for | People with a language app build this as a feature. Solo devs who know WidgetKit, make their own content, and have no budget should target Japanese in just one market. |
Latest
- 11-07Hourly Kana's rating growth has slowed and is now flat.