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- Hungry Money: The health apps raking six figures - from Olive’s $1.2 M run to the 1,187th calorie counter
Hungry Money: The health apps raking six figures - from Olive’s $1.2 M run to the 1,187th calorie counter
“Still Hungry Money” Edition — ultra‐niche food apps feasting on six‐figures a month
Ananay Batra
June 16, 2025
Why the 1,187th calorie‑counter still makes six figures - and how food‑scanner apps quietly chew through the App Store’s money pile
Spoiler: health & nutrition is bottomless
Everyone thinks the “fitness app gold‑rush” ended when MyFitnessPal sold for a gazillion. Wrong. 2025’s App Store charts prove you can launch the one‑thousand‑one‑hundred‑eighty‑seventh calorie counter and still pocket $100 k a month if you tweak the angle.
All revenue = last‑30‑day Sensor Tower estimates unless noted.
1️⃣ Olive: 0→$1.2 m ARR in 6 months - ultra‑processed food scanner - $100 k / month
Launch date | 1 Jan 2025 |
ARR | Crossed $1.2 m by June 2025 (≈ $100 k MRR) |
Secret sauce | “Is this food ULTRA‑processed?” filter → users share first scan to IG Reels |
Growth hack | Freemium upsell to full meal planning; shareable content snowball. |
2️⃣ MyNetDiary: 17‑year OG calorie counter - $900 k / month
What it does | Classic calorie tracker, massive food DB |
Money math | 200 k downloads • $900 k rev last month |
Why it survives | Data lock‑in; users stick with the log that knows their macros |
Steal‑this‑move | “Barcode bulk add” → lightning‑fast UX no one else nails. |
3️⃣ BitePal: Cartoon‑mascot AI calorie tracker - $400 k / month
Hook | Tiktok‑ready goofy avatar shaming your donut logs |
Users pay | $29/yr for the humour + weekly cheat‑meal scores |
Builder takeaway | Personality > features. Same API, fresh skin, new demo video. |
4️⃣ Fig: Grocery‑label allergy scanner - $300 k / month
What it does | Snap label → flags gluten, dairy, soy in 2 sec |
Sticky value | Allergy sufferers are price‑inelastic; avoiding hives is priceless |
Builder takeaway | Niche the pain, not the tech: FODMAP‑scanner, pregnancy‑safe foods. |
5️⃣ Simple: minimalist fasting timer & weight‑loss coach - $200 k / month
Edge | Push‑notification fasting countdown; clean purple UI |
Why it converts | Fasting crowd values timers more than nutrient databases |
Copy‑paste angle | Keto‑only tracker: remove every carb except <20 g from the list. |
🪄 Differentiator playbook — carve your 1 % of a huge pie
Vertical POV: diabetics, bodybuilders, pregnant moms, low‑histamine diets. Pick one.
Input innovation: barcode & receipt OCR are table stakes. Try voice logging (Whisper), smart‑watch photo ingestion, or menu scraping for instant macros.
Outcome pricing: charge for the goal, not the database. “Lose 5 lbs in 30 days” → bonus month free if you miss.
Swappable models: Llama 3 handles basic nutrition lookup for pennies; upgrade to GPT‑4o for premium food‑photo segmentation.
⚡️ Bonus build: real‑time restaurant plate scanner
Imagine Strava‑for‑food: point phone at dinner, get macros, auto‑share to accountability circle.
Stack: iOS Vision Pro segmentation → food‑embedding look‑up (Gemma 7B) → calorie calc → Apple Health export.
Monetisation: $4.99/mo ad‑free + $19/mo coach viewing your plate feed.
Reply with a TestFlight link and we’ll roast - or feature your MVP.
TL;DR
Health is never “done.” Even the 1,187th calorie counter clears six figures because millions cycle through diets every quarter. Differentiate on a single obsession, sprinkle AI speed, and you’ve got predictable cash flow.
Data: Sensor Tower, App Store pages, public ARR disclosures.