MFM #163: How Chrome Plugins Are Making Millions & How A Studying App is Going Viral

TL;DR

Chrome extensions are a highly underestimated business opportunity: Grammarly does over $100M/year in sales, Honey sold for $4B, and the platform has 3B users but only 200K extensions vs. 2M iPhone apps. The key is to take a popular app (e.g., Duolingo) or behavior (e.g., grammar checking, coupon hunting) and turn it into a frictionless plugin. A new studying app called StudyStream.

Key insights

• Chrome extensions have very low churn compared to iPhone apps; users install and rarely remove them, even if engagement isn’t daily.
• The two strategies for Chrome extension ideas: (1) look at successful companies doing >$100M in sales and recreate them as a plugin, or (2) identify behaviors people want to do but avoid due to fricti
• Toucan (language learning Chrome extension) replaces the need to open a separate app like Duolingo; it changes a few words on every webpage into the target language, leveraging existing browsing time.