Hey, Ivan here!

There's a Turkish studio called Codeway. In 5 years, they built a portfolio of a dozen apps, hitting $25M/month in revenue – that's what Sensor Tower tracks, the real number is much higher.

Today, I want to break down the core principles behind their business. If you want deeper dives into specific apps – let me know, I'll cover them in future issues.

How It Started

Their first truly successful product was CleanUp – a phone storage cleaner app.

Then came Ask AI – a GPT wrapper that, in 2023-2024, ranked in the top 5 by revenue (excluding official apps from AI giants).

Riding the Ask AI success, Codeway launched about a dozen more AI wrappers.

Today their top 5 apps by revenue:

Paid Ads Are Everything

These guys invest heavily in marketing.

❝

"The very first thing we do when launching an app is launch a paid campaign. From day zero, from the first few hours."

Cantuğ Sugün, Marketing Team Lead

Main channels:

  • Meta Ads

  • TikTok Ads

  • Google Ads

  • Apple Ads

  • Influencers

Results like theirs are impossible without paid ads.

Massive Creative Volume

A lot of creatives. Like, a LOT. That volume is exactly what sustains such high revenue.

CleanUp Meta Ads Library:

They run 200-500 active creatives monthly.

Here's their education app Learna:

And that's just 1 account. They have around 10:

The Codeway Paywall Template

Most ed-tech and health apps have long quiz-based onboardings to "personalize" the experience. Codeway does the opposite – short onboarding, straight to paywall.

Their paywall formula across all apps:

  • Soft paywall – can be dismissed, user gets inside the app

  • 7-day free trial – low commitment to start

  • Weekly pricing only – no yearly option

  • Same UI everywhere – one template that works

No Yearly Subscriptions

This is one of the most interesting facts. Back in the Ask AI days – unlike the rest of the market – Codeway didn't offer yearly subscriptions. Weekly only.

Research shows weekly subscriptions have higher LTV than yearly. Though typically the winning combo is a trial on weekly + yearly option.

Codeway apparently disagrees.

Protecting Their Brand in Apple Ads

They seem to set defensive bids to minimize competitors from showing up on their branded keywords.

Not Afraid to Shut Down Unprofitable Projects

Ask AI was their biggest app by revenue. At one point, it was making $3-5M/month. Now – "only" $700K/month.

Almost no active ads in Meta Ads Library.

Competition in the AI wrapper market keeps getting tougher. Buying paid ads profitably is hard. I know from my own similar app.

Despite Ask AI being half their business, they successfully refocused on other products.

They Keep Testing

In late 2024 they launched Drama Pops – a short drama app. I've talked about this multi-billion-dollar niche. Leaders here make $500M-1B per year. It's a massive market at its peak right now.

Drama Pops is already bringing them $700K/month. And with their experience, I think they can claim their spot in the top.

Codeway is a phenomenon. In 5 years, they've done incredible work. I recommend watching their product decisions and marketing tests.

If you want to go deeper into a specific app – let me know.

Worth checking out

Adam Lyttle built (again) a skill that generates high-converting onboarding flows in 5 minutes.

My breakdown of the short drama market – context for why Codeway launched Drama Pops – this niche is exploding.

Portfolio strategy speedrun gone wrong – an indie dev launched 169 apps. The portfolio thesis is real, but that's not how it works.

Before you go:

If you have ideas for future issues, just reply to this email. I read everything.

See you next week,
Ivan.