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1. Development Journey

Time flies; in the blink of an eye, the Fuzhu Accounting mini-program has been online for half a year, evolving from v1.0.0 to v1.6.1. Today, as I reviewed the development logs, I honestly couldn't believe I managed to build and launch it in my spare time.

2. User Accumulation

As of January 10, 2026, we have accumulated 872 users. Thank you for your usage and support!

I didn't do much promotion after the mini-program launched, only writing one official account article that garnered over 1200 views; after that, it was all natural traffic. While user growth data is considerable, retention data is not optimistic, dropping from over 70 daily active users to a stable 10-something. This makes me wonder if what I've built isn't good enough or doesn't truly help users. To avoid developing in isolation, I will actively listen to feedback and suggestions from friends and users, making adjustments and optimizations to make it better and better. Regardless of the future, I will continue to update and iterate on this project, serving more users. It is my first complete work, and also my first step into independent development! I will treat it with utmost seriousness.

3. Revenue

Currently, the only source of income is from the traffic owner (ad platform), as all features are free. To avoid impacting user experience, I only introduced splash screen ads after enabling the traffic owner function. The traffic owner has been active for 3 months, with a total income of 69.32. This averages out to about 0.4 per day, which is practically no income, haha. Software without revenue is like water without a source or a tree without roots – it won't last long, and it can easily make users worry that I might abandon it at any time. My plan is to introduce VIP features once I've made Fuzhu Accounting more complete and better.

4. Reflections

Developing Fuzhu Accounting was my first step towards independent development, making me realize the vast difference between creating a demo and building a product. Moving from a presentable demo to a usable product, and then from usable to truly good, requires careful thought and effort. Many things need to be considered, such as UI design, user experience, user guidance, functional testing, and so on. Having high aspirations but low abilities (眼高手低) is a common mistake I make and a habit I need to overcome quickly, avoiding perfectionism. Completion must precede perfection.

In independent development, you need to reduce the dominance of a programmer's mindset and integrate product thinking and operations thinking. When working for a company, you only need to focus on your specific tasks; once a feature is implemented without issues, you can grab a coffee and relax. But independent development is different; you have to be both the father and the mother. Don't overly focus on whether the code is beautiful or robust, and don't immediately jump into using this framework, that technology, design patterns, or algorithms in a chaotic manner. It's crucial to avoid this in the early stages, otherwise, your energy will quickly be depleted. What you need to consider is what can help you implement and launch your features quickly! Don't worry if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat.

AI has truly changed our development model; it has saved me a lot of development time, and we should actively embrace this change. I dare say that without AI's assistance, this project would have taken at least twice as long to complete, or perhaps wouldn't have been completed at all! However, it's not as exaggerated as what's said online, where AI can create an app with just one sentence – that's unrealistic. Even if it could, there would be many problems requiring extensive time for adjustment and repair. Through this period of collaborative development with AI, I've found that the ceiling of AI's capability is actually the ceiling of your personal ability. If you are strong, AI is strong; you are like a commander, and AI helps you work. But if your ability is lacking and your professional knowledge is insufficient, leading to misguided commands, AI also becomes foolish; it cannot create something that isn't in your mind! In this era of rapid AI development, I should focus on cultivating my thinking abilities: code thinking and product thinking. I remember a saying: code forms in your mind; as long as the thought process is correct, writing code is just a stacking process. Now that AI helps me with the coding step, we should learn how to clearly articulate the thoughts in our minds, so that AI can understand and follow our ideas.

The most important aspects are always saved for last: product positioning and operational promotion. No matter how good your product is, if no one knows about it, it won't succeed. Product positioning is crucial, especially if you choose a red ocean market like accounting, where a quick search reveals dozens of similar apps. It's incredibly difficult to snatch traffic from leading apps. But let's consider a question: why do new accounting software occasionally appear even though there are so many already? My answer is: no single software can satisfy all users' needs! For example, I am one of them, and I believe there are others like me. Therefore, I need to achieve differentiation. Simply replicating someone else's product won't work. Differentiation can be in features, UI, or interaction. Avoiding a "big and comprehensive" approach and focusing on "small and beautiful," targeting a specific type of user need, is the way to break through. As for promotion, if there's no money for advertising, you have to rely on yourself. Besides publishing articles on various platforms, there's no other way for cold starts, which is a last resort. This further highlights the importance of building a personal IP.

Independent development is a journey through the night, without a clear goal or endpoint; everything is an unknown. But I love unknowns, because it means my life has infinite possibilities!

👉️ 4.13 Touch Status Mini Program, real-time count of status users.