Underhype is a trip planner for travelers in Sweden. While being a very niche product, it's made to be profitable. Here are the numbers behind the product.

Business model

Users can use the core parts of the planner for free — plan a trip, see recommendations, filter info. It helps with user acquisition.

The paid version brings way more power: users can save trips, use more filters, and — most importantly — use the trip budget planner.

Main audience

There are three categories of users I'm focusing on:

First — travelers from the USA, who are the main foreign visitors to Sweden. Trips are expensive and require good planning.

Second — travelers from the UK and Germany. They visit Sweden frequently, but living way closer to Sweden may make the planner less attractive to them.

Third — Swedish residents who travel to another city inside Sweden. The biggest group of tourists, but also the one that requires a completely different approach — they don't need the explainers foreigners do.

One-time payment instead of subscription

While a subscription is better in terms of revenue, it does not make sense for Underhype specifically: our main users, from the UK and USA, probably will use it once anyway.

That's why the paid version requires a one-time payment and gives lifetime access — supporting Underhype's brand voice (subscriptions are overhyped — nobody likes them).

Price

It costs 9 € to have lifetime access to the paid features of Underhype. It's less than the PDF guides bloggers try to sell (20–30 €) and gives more value than a paper-based casual travel guide, which can't have budgeting features for obvious reasons.

Simplified financial plan