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Will you enter Huawei’s AppsUp developer contest? Here’s what the judges are looking for…

Promo Huawei’s AppsUp developer contest is now in full swing with a deadline of October 8, 2020, to get your app submitted in hope of taking home a slice of a $1m prize fund.

The contest’s judging panel spans the mobile tech world. With daphni investor Paul Basin; VP for Huawei’s Europe operations Dr Jaime Gonzalo; Head of the HumanTech Social and Technological Innovation Center at SWPS University Dr Konrad Maj; and Principal at Northzone Wendy Xiao Schadeck critiquing your work, you can be sure entries will need to be of high quality.

The panel are looking for app concepts that are ready to the hit the market – several markets, in fact – running.

Basin said investors are looking for apps that their creators “want to scale rapidly, with entrepreneurial intentions.” A detailed plan of usage KPIs, daily activity incentives, and estimate of churn need to be provided when coming up with a concept. “We need to believe in the vision when we make the investment,” he said.

The top five most popular app areas at the moment, according to Dr Gonzalo, are food, education, healthcare, social networking, and games. It’s likely the pandemic has caused users to double down on health and food, so there are clear opportunities there.

When planning the markets an app could work in, Dr Gonzalo has a key piece of advice: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – don’t restrict your app to one marketplace. Explore the wider app ecosystem.” With China in particular becoming a hugely lucrative mobile app market beyond the reach of Apple and Google, it’s important to think beyond single ecosystems.

Dr Maj, meanwhile, reminded entrants to brush up on their presentation skills. “Visualise what you want to present, especially if it’s complex,” he said. “[You must have] data. I’m waiting for a concept, and I want to be able to see it.”

Schadeck revealed what she thinks is the “next big thing” in the app landscape: “Decentralised finance is going to be huge,” she said, dubbing the technology DeFi. “It allows us to build complex financial use cases without having to work with a centralised financial services company.”

You can watch this video to get more advice from the judges, and sign up for Huawei’s AppsUp developer contest right here.

source: The Register