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Not promising: template factories. 'Hobby community' token shells, voice room / live dating disguises, and 'interest guides' sold at one-time prices of $30–40. The formula is copyable, but only the factory makes money.
Close Worth tracking (the other side) · Looks hot, but it's capacity and paid acquisition for batch-producing dozens of apps from the same recipe First seen 2026-11-01 · Last updated 2026-11-06
- Status
- Close (not recommended: the first two are token / gift-monetization fronts; the third recipe can be copied, but a single app is just a mass-produced unit in a factory).
- Why this is written up
- This batch is very conspicuous on the iOS rising chart and in "number of stores charted in the category top grossing": Berk, a ski app, made Lifestyle Top Grossing top-50 in 14 major markets. If you only look at the number of charted stores, you'd think "hobby + community" is a niche. Only the fingerprints show it's a shell factory. The interest-guide recipe does make money (pick a hobby with tutorial appeal, generate content, $30–40 one-time purchase, Facebook ads to Europe), but the money comes from one studio spreading paid acquisition and content costs across 10 apps.
- Confidence
- High (hobby-community shells and voice-room fronts); medium (whether a single interest-guide app can survive, with no single-product revenue data). Conditions that would overturn this (what would make it doable for a small team): an interest-guide app from a developer with only 1–2 apps holds a top-50 Top Grossing spot in a major market's category for 30 days; or a similar single product in indie reaches monthly revenue ≥$5k. At that point, split "interest guides" out into its own inspiration record.
Evidence
Grouped by store. Each group starts with the charts that can be graphed (real curves, data dates below the chart), then the scanner's original notes and source links.
App Store3 evidence items · 5 products with curves
Berk: Ski Tracker & Community PT SANDI DAYA GUNA
App Store · launched 2026-08-28 · US rating 62 · 11-08 best Top Grossing overall rank #15 (DZ) · charted in 11-08 98 stores
DZNepalPakistan
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 11 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Best rank across each day's category charts
Ceno: Stargazing Community PT UTAMA BINA JAKA
App Store · debuted 2026-08-19 · US store ratings 47 · 11-07 best overall Top Grossing rank #133 (LB) · 11-07 charted in 77 stores
LBDZTN
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-07 (11 days, 11 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-07 (11 days, 11 observations). Best rank across each day's category charts
Trekly, Max Parker
App Store · launched 2026-10-25 · US store rating 4 · charted in 11-08 of 26 stores
US storeJapanItaly
Data 2026-10-31 → 2026-11-08 (9 days, 9 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
Data 2026-10-31 → 2026-11-08 (9 days, 9 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.
Sovrin. RASMUS KASK
App Store · launched 2026-10-25 · US store rating 0 · charted in 11-06 of 17 stores
KE #188
Data day 2026-10-31, only 1 days so far. Lower rank is higher; gaps are days it wasn't charted
Data 2026-10-30 → 2026-11-01 (3 days, 3 observations). Best rank across each day's category charts
Sewpal: Sewing Pattern & Guide PIXELCELL PTE. LIMITED
App Store · launched 2025-11-03 · US store rating 12,999 · charted in 11-08 of 104 stores
DMDZMG
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-03 (6 days, 6 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Best rank across each day's category charts
- App Store (all stores, checked 11-02): "hobby community" shells. Berk: Ski Tracker & Community (6803754196) combined ratings 10-28 24 → 11-02 343, stores in top-50 of the main markets' category top grossing 11-01 14 → 11-02 12, overall top grossing in 8 stores; Ceno: Stargazing Community (6795425766) 19 → 332, category top grossing in 59 stores; Trekly, (debuted 6820876045,10-25) 5 ratings, category top grossing in 18 stores; Sovrin. (6820873752) 1 ratings, 15 stores. Same-source fingerprints (11-02 rechecked): all four are 1.1.0 builds, min_os 15.6, Berk and Ceno updated on 10-22, Trekly 10-28, Sovrin 10-27 updates.
- App Store (report, 11-01): the same batch also includes Candra, Nook, Olen, Ekko, Bello, Natant, Lurivo; their update notes all read "bug fix and improvement", ending with the same zero-width character. Reviews are all one-word five-stars from Turkey / Vietnam / Indonesia; the only substantive negative review says "I paid by bank transfer for tokens and they never credited them, and then they asked for my ID card." This is a token-chat / scam shell wearing a hobby skin.
- App Store (all stores, checked 11-02): Sewpal: Sewing Pattern & Guide (6754315885, PIXELCELL.LIMITED) charted in 105 stores, in category top grossing in 80 stores, overall top grossing in 1 stores, combined ratings 28,284 (the report says 82 stores / 19,627, the counts don't match, see notes).
Google Play2 evidence items · 4 products with curves
Lavo - Meet New People Robby rahmataw
Google Play · Launched 2026-06-29 · 11-07 installs 2,547,029
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
Woodsense: Wood Plans & Guides Next Vision Limited
Google Play · Launched 2026-09-08 · 11-07 installs 312,630
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
FoilSnap: TCG Card Identifier Next Vision Limited
Google Play · Launched 2026-02-04 · 11-07 installs 465,004
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
Sewpal: Sewing Pattern & Guide PIXELCELL PTE. LIMITED
Google Play · Launched 2026-07-24 · 11-07 installs 172,926
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
- GP (global, checked 11-02): in 180 days, 224 new voice-room / random-video / live-dating apps, 27.9M installs, 41 of them with ≥50k installs and zero ratings (reported numbers). Lavo - Meet New People (com.lavo.run.and, developer "Robby rahmataw") 10-29 2,218,242 → 11-02 2,341,398 installs, charted in 25 stores. Yoko, Mego, Suka, Meli, Roost, Minemo, Cici are the same type: developer names are Indonesian individual names, package names are all com.*.and, monetized through virtual gifts.
- GP (11-02 checked): the "interest guide" factory. Next Vision Limited's library has 10 apps, combined 52,266,420 installs (the largest is CoinSnap); Woodsense (com.woodworkingplan.woodidentify, debuted 09-08, $39.99 one-time) 10-29 250,050 → 11-02 276,728 installs, it Books Top Grossing #12, fr #19, us #48; FoilSnap (com.tcgworth.identifier) 456,945 installs, gb TOOLS Top Grossing #69. PIXELCELL's library has 3 apps; Sewpal (com.sewpal.sewingguide, $29.99–39.99) 152,086 installs, 20,747 ratings, us Lifestyle Top Grossing #87.
Already doing it
Hobby-community shells: Berk, Ceno, Candra, Nook, Olen, Ekko, Bello, Trekly, Sovrin, Natant, Lurivo; voice-room fronts: Lavo, Yoko, Mego, Suka, Meli, Roost, Minemo, Cici; interest-guide factories: Next Vision Limited (Woodsense, FoilSnap, CoinSnap and 10 others), PIXELCELL (Sewpal, YarnPal and 3 others).
The hardest step
Capacity and paid acquisition. A single interest-guide app earns limited revenue; it only pays off when the same recipe is spread across 10 hobbies, sharing ad-buying capacity. The first two shell types also have to absorb scam complaints and payment risk.
Who it's for
Only suits app factories. What an individual can borrow is the interest-guide pricing approach ($30–40 one-time purchase + European ads). If you build one, don't expect the factory's total revenue.
Should every product builder know this?
Yes (the "number of charted stores" signal can be gamed by template factories, so always read it alongside rating counts and developer fingerprints).
Change log
2026-11-06
Merged into Waffle — the cat has them all (GP, 16 days, 12k installs), debuted in us Dating Top Grossing at #18.
2026-11-05
Merged into Bonbo: Swipe & Spark (GP com.bonbo.app, developer BURGER BEAST, contact email gmail, debuted 8-06): debuted in ca Social Top Grossing at #20, au #35, us #86, in-app purchases $1.99–69.99, only 28k installs and 1,265 ratings: a typical small-volume, high-ARPU dating / voice-room front.
2026-11-02
Backfill check: Berk score total 312 → 343, top-50 Top Grossing store count in main markets 14 → 12; Ceno 295 → 332; Sovrin dropped from 4 stores to 1 in main markets. Fingerprints unchanged, four are still 1.1.0 / 15.6. Lavo 4 days +123k installs, Woodsense +27k. Sewpal iOS numbers differ a lot from the report (report 82 stores / 19,627, today 105 stores / 28,284).
2026-11-01
First recorded (backfill: from App Store New Opportunities (Batch 1) §3.5, Google Play New Opportunities (Batch 1) §3.4, §3.6, Stringers §4, data as of 2026-11-01).
Original: Scanner opportunity library #077 (updated daily, 06:00); this page was generated on the 2026-11-08 edition.