Mass Slop. Rare Craft.
AI raised the floor. Taste raised the ceiling.
Hi there, it’s been a while since I didn’t sit down and write a new piece for The Playbook. Thanks for sticking around!
Let’s meet at the end of this piece for a small announcement.
I’ve been busy launching and developing my new venture - Offmarket, together with my cofounder Harold. and I must admit that the past 4 months have been a gold mine of informations about the market and how it evolves.
While I previously wrote extensively about taste, look and feel, secret sauce, it wasn’t really clear how AI would affect all of this. We are now at the front row to witness how fast and deep the market is shifting and it’s no surprise that craft has become a strong if not the strongest differentiator to make a dent out there.
Open the App Store right now.
Scroll through the new releases.
Between the legit indie apps and the big names, there’s a wasteland. Barely functional tools. Recycled templates. AI-generated slop flooding the marketplace at a pace we’ve never seen before.
Let that sink in:
299 billion app downloads globally in 2025.
819 million installs a day.
And 46% of them uninstalled within 30 days.
That’s 378 million uninstalls. Per day.
More than 1000 AI apps are released every month both the App Store and Google Play.
Welcome to the era of mass production. And mass disposal. Digital edition.
We’ve seen this movie before. In the physical world. For decades.
You have industries of mass consumer goods, producing huge, dull quantities. Fast fashion. Cheap electronics. Disposable everything.
And then you have the artisans. Leveraging their craft to produce higher quality, premium goods. Stuff people actually keep. Stuff people actually love.
I don’t believe the digital world is any different.
The App Store is literally drowning.
Google Play lost 47% of its apps in a single year. Went from 3.4 million to 1.8 million. Google is actively purging low-quality garbage.
Apple is tightening the gates too.
And yet, the flood keeps coming.
GenAI app usage grew 425% in one year. Revenue spiked 254%.
The bar to release has been lowered. Anyone can prompt a GPT to create yet another recipe tracker. Another fitness app. Another calorie counter.
And yes, good news, chances are you don’t need Figma for that.
But you’ll just be another slop out there. And another LinkedIn post to brag about it.
Because while the bar to ship went down, the bar on taste and true craft went way up.
We’re seeing it every day with Harold and our Offmarket companies. It doesn’t matter where you worked before. It’s almost like the playing field has been entirely reset.
Almost every single company that we work with requires exactly three things:
AI native.
Taste displayed through powerful craft.
Drive.
Track record now matters much less than actual craft. And how you recently embraced the new paradigms when it comes to creation.
AI is either a taste multiplier or a crap multiplier.
Simple as that.
If you have taste, AI makes you faster, sharper, more dangerous. It will absolutely accelerate you.
If you don’t, I’m sorry but it just helps you produce garbage at scale.
I’m not saying that you might not be financially successful. After all, there are tons of successful garbage out there.
Actually, it seems the best-selling apps are the ones nailing distribution and growth hacks.
You know what I’m talking about.
The so-called founders claiming they completely replaced Figma with Claude or Cursor. Built an entire app overnight. Shipped it. Got whatever amount of users and downloads. Sometimes even announcing MRR numbers.
Cool story.
Don’t fall into this LinkedIn hook nonsense.
Everybody can ship a tracker app. Sure. You probably don’t need Figma for that anyway.
But you’ll just add to the pile. And earn yourself a round of applause from people who will never use your product.
I’m deeply convinced there is a still a world where delightful and vibrant products can actually become a fruitful business and not a disposable one.
We are entering a new craftsmanship and artisan era.
Where “Human Design” is becoming the new “Organic.” Just as organic redefined how we think about food, human-centric design is redefining the luxury market in tech.
The numbers back it up.
App downloads are declining. Consumer spending is soaring. Users are willing to pay more for fewer, better apps. Spending per download rose 9% year-over-year.
Downloads down. Revenue up.
That’s the textbook definition of a market rewarding quality over quantity.
And it’s only going to accelerate.
Subscription fatigue is real. Users are done paying for mediocre. The apps that win are the ones offering genuine value. Not volume.
We’ve optimized our interfaces into oblivion. Smoothed out every edge. Standardized everything. Lost the weirdness, the texture, the soul.
Craft brings it back.
The market is splitting in two.
Mass AI slop on one side. Premium craft on the other.
The middle is quickly disappearing.
Apps that don’t pick a lane will get buried under the noise. Invisible. Forgotten.
So pick yours.
Build with taste. Build with intention. Build things that feel alive, responsive, personal.
Things that make people feel something when they use them.
And you might even make a decent buck out of it.
Julien.
On Monday March 16, I’ll open up a new round of free 15mn calls on my LinkedIn to celebrate the launch of Offmarket Substack newsletter on March 23.
There are many things that we want to talk about and we cannot wait to meet the community.
Whether you’re a junior designer or a more seasoned one - or even a founder in the industry, Offmarket will absolutely provide valuable insights and content.
Calling us out. Love it!