
Vibecoding Will Mainly Benefit Marketing Platforms
So, I have been observing this trend for quite some time now and to be honest, as a developer it does make me feel nervous and uneasy as the barriers to entry are dropping but at the same time I love it because I get to build out things that have been on my list for so long.
AI has made it so much easier to build and launch software. As a result, the number of new apps has nearly doubled over the past year. This is not something I am saying randomly but this is according to a16z.
The real challenge, however, is no longer building an app (I think it never was); rather, it is getting ACTUAL users to use it.
We've seen this pattern before with e-commerce, music, social media, and other forms of digital content. As barriers to building software continue to fall, creators who once sold courses or ran online stores(drop-shipping/e-commerce) are now launching apps left and right. Lower barriers to creation lead to an explosion of products, fiercer competition, and ultimately higher customer acquisition costs.
The biggest winners may not be the websites or apps we are building, not even the AI coding platforms, but companies like Google and Meta benefit from rising customer acquisition costs, while platforms such as Shopify, Prosperna Stripe, Orderna, Payrex, GCash, Maya, and other payment or commerce providers benefit as more businesses move online. Every successful app eventually needs a way to accept payments, manage customers, and operate efficiently.
In the end, vibecoding lowers the cost of building software, but it does not lower the cost of acquiring customers. That may become the biggest bottleneck of all.
What are your thoughts on this?