Are you a Panini album fan? Mexicans launch app to help complete it

A group of Tec de Monterrey graduates have launched the Sticker Collector 2022 app to help complete the Qatar 2022 Panini album by making it easier to exchange repeated stickers.

Arantza Ávila, Víctor Najar, Juan Pablo Ramírez, and Miguel Angel Cabral are part of the team of developers of this application, which records people’s progress in completing their World Cup albums.

“Before, the way to collect stickers was to cross out the ones you already had on a piece of paper. Sometimes, you even had to play a game to earn the ones you were missing,” Najar points out.

The first version of this app was launched for the 2018 World Cup. This second version has more features and has been translated into several languages.

So far, it has already surpassed the downloads of the first version and has reached more than 100 countries.

An app with new features

The 2022 app consists of a list of sticker spaces in the album, so that users can keep track of them and see how many they have.

Users can now add and remove stickers more quickly as they collect them.

They can also view their collections by sticker number or by the national team they belong to, as well as being able to export or import someone else’s list.

“We set about the task of providing something more to the user. We planned and developed it by thinking about what else we could offer beyond being able to identify repeated stickers and those you’re still missing.

“We added tools to interact with other users, follow a friend’s list, and see their progress in real time. The app itself tells you when someone else has the number 1, 2, or 3 sticker that you need,” they say.

Sharing your own collection and viewing other users’ collections is also one of the features that were missing in the 2018 app and are now included in the 2022 app.

The app has a free version supported by ads, which can be removed in the paid version, and is available on iOS and Android.

Making an impact in Latin America

This time, the app is also available in several languages and has already been downloaded in at least 100 countries, according to the members of this group.

“In the last World Cup, downloads of the earlier app were slower than this time.” Back then, they had 15,000 downloads. “Now, in a matter of days, downloads have surpassed the earlier version.”

“We had about 57,000 downloads in one week. We have a lot of activity in South America and it’s going up in Europe,” said Miguel.

Brazil was the first country where the app was launched this time around since it was the first Latin American country to begin selling the album.

“This year, the album had more information, the structure was changed, and we had to be on the lookout to see what the album was like and adapt the app,” Cabral said.

Similarly, the group notes that one of the most rewarding things about the process is seeing the download metrics and people’s comments.

The app created by the group in 2022 had more than double the downloads in 15 days compared to the same time period in 2018 for the first version.

Challenges: time and inexperience in creating apps

This team of developers have known each other since their time in PrepaTec, when they used to meet in the afternoons to exchange World Cup album stickers.

The way they completed them was to write down the repeated stickers on a piece of paper while they manually searched for the ones they were still missing, they told CONECTA.

Just 10 days before the 2018 World Cup album was available for purchase in Mexico, they decided to create an app to keep track of their stickers in a simple way.

Although Víctor was on an international exchange in Hong Kong at the time, the group decided that they would try to create the application, and they worked together from afar during those 10 days to create it.

“Four years ago, time was the challenge. Apart from that, it was our first application. We knew the process of creating an app, but we didn’t know how long it takes to publish it or about licensing and ads,” recalls Juan Pablo.

Launching the first version in 2018

Despite the rush, they created the Sticker Collector 2018 app, which was published and downloaded 15,000 times in more than 50 countries 15 days after arriving in the app stores.

“We really liked the experience, but there were some things we didn’t have time to do. We were so hooked that we didn’t stop there. We said to ourselves, ‘We’re going to create another one in four years,’” says Cabral.

For the Qatar 2022 World Cup, which starts on November 20 and ends on December 18, Marketing graduate Arantza would be in charge of helping to translate the app into different languages, as well as how to market it.

The others, who are Computer Systems graduates, were in charge of developing and programming the application.

“We were so hooked (in 2018) that we didn’t stop there. We said to ourselves, ‘We’re going to create another one in four years.’”

Helped by their work at the university

Today, the Tec de Monterrey graduates have different jobs and don’t see each other on a daily basis like they did when they studied at PrepaTec.

Despite this, they point out that it was rewarding for the group to work together. Although it isn’t their goal, receiving an invitation to work with Panini, the company in charge of the FIFA World Cup album, would be an accomplishment.

“I find it amazing that it (the app) is all around the world. I really like the numbers, but the most rewarding thing was being able to work with my university team again.

“We all have our own lives, and we do our own things. Working together to create an app was really great,” adds Víctor.

Although the app started as an activity while they were studying at the Tec, Arantza noted that the experience they gained from their studies helped them make this new version closer to their original idea.

“The Tec paved the way for us academically and personally, both in PrepaTec and on our university courses. We were in student groups and were open to learning other skills that we might not have picked up normally,” she added.

“The Tec taught us that we can be bigger and that we can compete on another level. If we hadn’t had the basics, we wouldn’t have taken advantage of the information. These are the things we were taught in school,” Miguel concludes.

Panini World Cup albums are considered one of the most popular sports collectibles in the world. The Qatar 2022 version has 670 stickers of the players, stadiums, and team logos.

The Panini album made its debut in 1970 during the Mexico World Cup. Each World Cup, a new version is launched so that people can complete all the blank spaces in the album with the correct stickers.

In other parts of the world, the sticker album is known as a stamp album.

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https://conecta.tec.mx/en/news/national/sports/kicking-ball-around-working-world-cup-qatar