The Million Dollar a Month Facebook Application
Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 22nd, 2008 1:46 PMThere’s a pretty well known secret among top Facebook application developers: one developer is generating over $1 million a month. Who is that developer exactly? Well, most people won’t talk about it and after some prodding around we’ve narrowed down the suspects. We aren’t going to post them though because ultimately it doesn’t matter who the individual is. All that matters is that a top application that is used for entertainment purposes is generating over $1 million a month.
Facebook Apps As a Business
While it still doesn’t qualify the company as a large business, it does emphasize the potential for applications in this space. As an individual developer or a small team of developers, $1 million a month is pretty damn good and I’m sure a large portion of that is going straight to the bank. Who’s responsible for generating this revenue?
Well there is already multiple ad networks that are generating revenue for their developers, but some of them are going so far as to speak out about how much money is being generated. Offerpal (who is also a sponsor of and participant in our Social Ad Summit) has said that developers are generating around $75 per 1,000 active daily users on average and $150-$200 for more engaging applications.
How to Generate the Big Bucks
So are you looking to become the next Facebook application millionaire? Good luck! Generating $1 million a month is pretty challenging in the current environment but if you can come up with a creative application, you may have a chance. (fluff)Friends users for instance, are so passionate about the application, that some of them went so far as to participate in a (fluff)Friends video contest. Below are a couple of the top videos.
This application and a few others like Friends For Sale, Mob Wars and Owned, are all highly engaging applications. Each of them continues to attract users months after they were launched and the applications also continue to evolve. If you are looking to build up your revenue base, then you might want to mimic many of the strategies employed by these companies.
Have you hears of any other interesting rumors about application revenue being generated?
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August 22nd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
hahah - hope you don't choke on the kool-aid
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:37 am
You want people to tell you about what others are generating in revenue and yet you are not willing to discuss the million dollar person? Reminds me of elementary school where someone says, “I have a secret I'm not telling you”.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 am
I'm curious to know too…
We do see some crazy allegiance over certain apps such as the ones listed above..who would have thunk?
August 24th, 2008 at 12:58 am
“We aren’t going to post them though because ultimately it doesn’t matter who the individual is.”
um, yes it does matter. that's why i clicked over to read this awful post. DIAF.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Pretty lame, feeling tricked … at least you should have choosen another headline and excerpt if you aren't going do reveal your “secret”.
August 24th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Of course, all we can assume as readers is that your are making it up, which will automatically make us question any other post in the blog. Congratulations, your credibility went down to 'near 0' in just 6 lines…
August 25th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Matt here from Offerpal — in Nick's defense, app developers can be a very secretive bunch and don't want others catching on to what works and what doesn't work for fear of getting copied. If Nick were to spill the beans he would lose his credibility from the source and would never get an inside scoop again.
That said, I can definitely confirm that there is at least one app making $1 million a month. In fact there is more than one. Of course, I'm bound by confidentiality agreements not to share who exactly, but I can say that across our entire network our publishers are making on average $75 per day for every 1,000 DAUs. With enough users, and with a highly engaging app, $1 million a month is definitely attainable.
Those who choose not to believe this fact will find out soon enough. The market for advertising on social apps is big and getting bigger. And we here at Offerpal feel we've got the secret sauce of embedded offers, high targeting capabilities and powerful revenue optimization. Give us a shot and find out for yourself.