Coiniverse
The coin collectors’ app that conquered the world
Coiniverse is the leading app for coin collectors anywhere in the world.
In eight years, the Coiniverse app has reached over 100,000 registered users around the world and aims to break the one million mark in 2024.
Qvik has been involved in the project from the start, designing the product together with the team and implementing its front and back end solutions.
Cash is dying, but coin collecting is thriving. There are an estimated 300 million coin collectors in the world, and the global market is worth an estimated 11.5 billion dollars.
Be that as it may, coin collecting is perhaps not the first thing that you would expect to be the next global digital success story. However, active collectors have found their way to the app in a short time, and there are now users in over 180 countries.
“Coiniverse is a classic example of a void in the market. The collectors have just been waiting for someone to offer a one-stop-shop solution that will let them network, get information on coins and, in future, trade.”
Mikko Sievänen, the CEO of Coiniverse
Coiniverse has partnered with a quarter of the world’s active mints, and new agreements are being negotiated all the time. The app is a great platform for mints to publicise their new collector’s coins and other offering to a dedicated and active audience.
“The mints know their own markets, own countries and own customers well, but finding new markets and international operations have been a challenge for them. This is the first official app with 100 per cent reliable information on coins and with the mints on board.”
Mikko Sievänen, the CEO of Coiniverse
User orientation and scalable architecture enabled the growth
Qvik has been involved in the Coiniverse journey from its beginning. Right at the start of the project, the company got one very important thing right when they immediately started planning big.
“Our goal was to make the best app on the global market for every coin collector and mint in the world and, so far, development is right on track,” says Sievänen.
Coiniverse is made with collectors, for collectors. An active group of enthusiasts and testers have been involved from the service concepting stage, and the team still regularly does user surveys and interviews. Embassy of design was responsible for user testing in the team, but experts were interviewed by the designers too.
“For example, it was really important to get feedback and ideas from coin collectors and experts in the concepting stage.”
Niina Nissinen, Senior Product Designer from Qvik
Coiniverse includes an extensive coin database, and Nissinen was involved in designing its search function and filter feature.
When a collector scans a coin and adds it to their collection in Coiniverse, it needs to include an assessment of the coin’s condition, which looks complicated to the uninitiated, as well as the coin’s issuer and minting date.
“The comments from experts and collectors helped us build a simple and easy-to-use search feature, which still shows all you need to know about a coin..”
Niina Nissinen, Senior Product Designer from Qvik
In anticipation of strong growth, the technological solutions were also built to be effortlessly scalable. The app’s front end is built on React Native and the back end on Python and Google Firebase.
“Qvik played a key role in the app’s development. We needed to seamlessly integrate coin expertise with the technical implementation, to all intents and purposes done exclusively by Qvik, to achieve success and growth.”
Mikko Sievänen, the CEO of Coiniverse
Modern solutions and marketing channels bring in the younger crowd
Coin collectors are not very young on average. Coiniverse sought to reach the younger aficionados but also attract new young people to the hobby. Sievänen says that investing in valuable coins is a rising trend among younger coin collectors.
“The average age of our app’s users is 35–55, which is very young for coin collectors. So we have been very successful in attracting the younger generation”, Sievänen says.
Modern and functional technologies, such as the coin scanner that uses AI to identify coins, the app’s nice graphic design, and marketing in social media channels have played a key role in this success.
One interesting feature of coin collecting is that every coin has a unique story and history – some of the oldest preserved works of art are coins. In future, Coiniverse will also try to highlight these stories and use coins to inspire people to study history.
“The app seems to fit the mindset of a coin collector. It’s modern, but not so modern as to undermine the dignity of collecting.”
Mikko Sievänen, the CEO of Coiniverse
The Coiniverse store currently shows the coins of all partner mints in one place, and the collector is directed to the mint’s online shop to make the purchase. The next development milestone is to make Coiniverse into a viable marketplace where collectors can safely and reliably buy coins both from each other and from mints.
The partnership with Qvik will continue.
“We have a great team, and our cooperation with Qvik has been open and flexible throughout.”
Mikko Sievänen, the CEO of Coiniverse
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