How to Build A Successful App on Facebook, Guaranteed!

Raki Sofrasi Application Icon While speaking on a panel at Snap Summit yesterday, one of the audience members posed a question to the panel: how do you gain exposure outside of the U.S. on Facebook? My response was to simply translate your application. While browsing through the application directory yestreday, I saw a number of Spanish and Turkish applications that were quite successful. One individual approached me after the summit yesterday and said that he is Turkish. He brought up one application in particular: Raki Sofrasi.

This application now has over 80,000 active daily users. That’s pretty impressive considering that there are currently just under 600,000 Facebook users in Turkey. Why was it so successful? Cultural affiliation. Prior to the Jewish high holidays this year there was a Rosh Hashanah application that acquired close to 100,000 users in a matter of days. If you want to succeed on Facebook, simply target a cultural, demographic or religious group that is currently being underserved.

Lee Lorenzen of Altura Ventures made a great suggestion at yesterday’s summit: go through a bookstore and look at the covers of every magazine. If any of the demographics being targeted by the magazines aren’t currently served (or are underserved) on Facebook, go build an application that targets them. It’s as simple as that. Have you seen any other applications that leverage this strategy?

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6596 Comments2007-10-27+18%3A46%3A59Nick+O%27Neill »

I think when you look at the potential of facebook and the international market it gets huge. The only thing I'd wonder, however, is how much dominance Facebook will have on the international markets. A lot of the times we find that countries develop their own cultural portals, however like Microsoft I think Facebook will have a clear social networking dominance worldwide.

Comment by FaceWeek.com — October 27, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
[...] Nick O’Neill, from Allfacebook.com, was a lot funnier than I expected. [...]

Pingback by SNAP Summit Wrap-Up: Facebook talks down, Lorenzen talks Bubble, Scoble talks Scoble | Startupism! — October 27, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
I think when you look at the potential of facebook and the international market it gets huge. The only thing I’d wonder, however, is how much dominance Facebook will have on the international markets. A lot of the times we find that countries develop their own cultural portals, however like Microsoft I think Facebook will have a clear social networking dominance worldwide.

Comment by FaceWeek.com — October 27, 2007 @ 5:55 pm
Ohhh Nick you have shown the goose that lays the golden egg here! I speak from experience on this one, (I have made dough here without crazy competition) – Markets outside of English are huge and are growing. People laugh at Orkut.com – ha ha big deal number one in Brazil – bahhh who cares – check out where Google makes dough in Adsense – there is a lot of money being made outside of English. Call me a kook if you want but I would check out this posting in Valleywag – http://valleywag.com/tech/google/fun-facts-abou…..Cheers – E

Comment by E Dewhirst — October 28, 2007 @ 10:20 am
Ohhh Nick you have shown the goose that lays the golden egg here! I speak from experience on this one, (I have made dough here without crazy competition) – Markets outside of English are huge and are growing. People laugh at Orkut.com – ha ha big deal number one in Brazil – bahhh who cares – check out where Google makes dough in Adsense – there is a lot of money being made outside of English. Call me a kook if you want but I would check out this posting in Valleywag – http://valleywag.com/tech/google/fun-facts-about-...

Cheers – E

Comment by E Dewhirst — October 28, 2007 @ 11:20 am
[...] Recipe for Succesful Facebook Apps [...]

Pingback by Kasi-Blog » Blog Archive » Facebook-Pessimists vs Facebook-Optimists — November 17, 2007 @ 10:20 pm

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I think when you look at the potential of facebook and the international market it gets huge. The only thing I'd wonder, however, is how much dominance Facebook will have on the international markets. A lot of the times we find that countries develop their own cultural portals, however like Microsoft I think Facebook will have a clear social networking dominance worldwide.

Comment by FaceWeek.com — October 27, 2007 @ 1:55 pm

[...] Nick O’Neill, from Allfacebook.com, was a lot funnier than I expected. [...]

Pingback by SNAP Summit Wrap-Up: Facebook talks down, Lorenzen talks Bubble, Scoble talks Scoble | Startupism! — October 27, 2007 @ 3:44 pm

I think when you look at the potential of facebook and the international market it gets huge. The only thing I’d wonder, however, is how much dominance Facebook will have on the international markets. A lot of the times we find that countries develop their own cultural portals, however like Microsoft I think Facebook will have a clear social networking dominance worldwide.

Comment by FaceWeek.com — October 27, 2007 @ 5:55 pm

Ohhh Nick you have shown the goose that lays the golden egg here! I speak from experience on this one, (I have made dough here without crazy competition) – Markets outside of English are huge and are growing. People laugh at Orkut.com – ha ha big deal number one in Brazil – bahhh who cares – check out where Google makes dough in Adsense – there is a lot of money being made outside of English. Call me a kook if you want but I would check out this posting in Valleywag – http://valleywag.com/tech/google/fun-facts-abou…..Cheers – E

Comment by E Dewhirst — October 28, 2007 @ 10:20 am

Cheers – E

Comment by E Dewhirst — October 28, 2007 @ 11:20 am

[...] Recipe for Succesful Facebook Apps [...]

Pingback by Kasi-Blog » Blog Archive » Facebook-Pessimists vs Facebook-Optimists — November 17, 2007 @ 10:20 pm