Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
8 tactics from Dmitry Gurski
Maximize Revenue with Regional Pricing — Dmitry Gurski, Flo App
Watch the full episode“When you're comparing like cost of burger in United States is cost of burger in Brazil the main reason that you have very different audience like different customers for burger and potentially for your app... average customer of your subscription in Brazil probably is a more like more affluent part of society.”
Big Mac Index Fails for App Pricing — Your iOS User in Brazil Is Not Average Brazil
The Big Mac Index assumes your Brazilian subscriber mirrors the average Brazilian consumer. They don't — your typical iOS subscriber in an emerging market skews wealthier and more tech-savvy than the population mean. Pricing based on purchasing power parity benchmarks systematically undervalues what your actual customer base can and will pay.
“In English speaking world and worldwide and because of that the pricing for iOS and Android originally may have very big difference in comparison with iOS and Android in United States or in English speaking world.”
iOS vs Android Pricing Gap Is Much Larger in Emerging Markets Than Rich Countries
In the US, Android subscribers pay maybe 15–20% less than iOS. In Brazil, the gap can be 2x or more — because wealthier Brazilians overwhelmingly use iOS while the Android base is far more price-sensitive. Applying one regional price to both platforms in a developing market leaves money on the table for iOS while pricing out Android users entirely.
“We not measuring pricing and success in pricing by conversions and it's very often a big mistake we measure pricing by influence on average revenue per user.”
Measure Regional Pricing Success by ARPU — Not Conversion Rate
A lower price can double conversions while increasing retention 3x — producing far higher ARPU than the original price despite the lower per-unit revenue. Apps that optimize pricing by conversion rate alone consistently leave money on the table. ARPU is the only metric that captures the full compounding effect of price on conversion, trial activation, and retention simultaneously.
“We reduced price significantly really significantly and it helped not just increase conversions and improve retentions but... it unlocked paid user acquisition because with this price conversions are enough to provide enough signals to networks and to get the traffic profitably.”
Cutting Brazil Prices Turned It Into a Top-3 Market — Lower Price Unlocked Profitable Paid UA
Flo significantly cut Brazil prices and saw Brazil become a top-3 or top-4 market. The unexpected multiplier: the higher conversion rate from the lower price produced enough signal quality for Meta and Google to find profitable audience segments — making paid UA work in Brazil for the first time. The right regional price doesn't just improve organic economics; it unlocks an entirely new paid acquisition channel.
“I would not advise to use any index or any Benchmark because optimal price may depends on many parameters like age of your users platform type of product cultural specifics and it just must be tested.”
No Benchmark Replaces Testing — Optimal Price Depends on Your Demographics, Platform, and Product
Even Flo's own pricing ratios (the 'flow index') can't be safely transplanted to other apps, because the age distribution and iOS/Android split of Flo's users differs from, say, a fitness app targeting users over 45. Regional pricing is not a formula — it's a testing problem unique to each product's demographic fingerprint.
“When Spotify Netflix and apple when they double down on specific market for example Germany or then Brazil then several years after people there start to pay for Flo subscription or other subscriptions just because they get in this habit they acceptance that it's okay to pay for digital subscriptions.”
Spotify and Netflix Spending in a Country Trains Its Population to Pay for Subscriptions
Subscription acceptance is not purely a wealth or pricing problem — it's cultural. Countries where Spotify and Netflix have invested heavily in local pricing and marketing see subscription conversion rates rise for all apps several years later. Italy and Poland have decent incomes but historically low digital subscription rates because infrastructure giants haven't normalized the habit there yet.
“We have given more than 20 million subscriptions like 20 million subscriptions we gifted more subscriptions than we because like now we have 6 million active subscribers maybe we have sold 10 million or so but we have given 20 million.”
Flo Gifted 20M+ Subscriptions in 50+ Countries — More Than It Has Ever Sold
In countries where women genuinely cannot afford a subscription — no credit card, or simply no disposable income — Flo unlocked the full product for free rather than leave 99%+ of users locked out. The company has gifted more subscriptions than it has ever sold: 20M gifted vs ~10M sold. There is no direct business return — only the mission alignment that makes employees and paying users more committed.
“Our International Revenue is growing and even this grow is speeding up for example this year we like Revenue out of Rich English speaking world increased like almost 80%... my prediction that long term Flo will even more money originally than in United States.”
International Revenue Will Outgrow the US — Non-English Markets Are Accelerating
Flo grew non-English-speaking market revenue ~80% year over year while traditional English-speaking markets grew more modestly. Dmitry's prediction: international will eventually surpass the US entirely. Apps that wait until English markets plateau to invest in regional pricing and localization will be starting from zero when the window closes.