Why people don't pay for safety apps

People don't pay for safety apps because they feel safety is the government's job, not theirs. I learned this with Donna, formerly WeHelp: 700 thousand registered users, #1 on the App Store, and never a profitable business. Everyone wanted the app; almost nobody wanted to pay what it cost to run it.

In short

A problem being urgent doesn't mean anyone will pay for it out of their own pocket.
A service with people behind it, like a 24/7 call center, has fixed costs that a low price can't cover.
If nobody pays directly, you have to find someone who will: a company, an insurer or an employer.

Why people don't pay

Safety feels like a right, not a product. When we asked people, the most common answer was that it's the government's job. Paying to feel safe feels like paying for something you should already have.

We weren't solving the whole problem. Donna didn't have its own police showing up at the scene. If something happened, what we could do was alert your contacts, send nearby users and call 911. For someone who already feels safety is the government's job, paying for an app that ends up calling 911 is hard to justify.

The price people accept doesn't cover the service. Some people would pay, but not much. A 24/7 call center with agents monitoring trips is expensive to run, and that low price was never enough.

What we tried with Donna

WeHelp started in 2019 as a free app. In 2022 we added physical security service and a call center. In 2023 we focused only on women, because they were most of our users and the most interested. The app grew, went viral several times and got national press. The business numbers never worked.

What I'd explore today

Find someone else to pay instead of the user: employers who want to take care of their people, insurers or transportation companies.
Separate what's free from what costs money: the SOS button can be free; monitoring with human agents, not.
Test the price before scaling: know how much people actually pay before building a 24/7 call center.

Frequently asked questions

Why do safety apps fail?

Because users feel safety is the government's responsibility, and because an app doesn't solve the whole problem: in a real emergency, it ends up calling 911. That's why few people pay enough to cover a service with people behind it, like a 24/7 call center.

How do you monetize a personal safety app?

Direct payment from users is rarely enough. The alternatives are having a third party pay, like an employer or an insurer, or charging only for human services like monitoring.

Why did Donna app shut down?

Because the unit economics didn't work: with 700 thousand registered users, revenue per user never covered the cost of running the service.

Can a viral app not be a business?

Yes. Donna went viral several times and hit #1 on the App Store as WeHelp, and still never turned a profit.