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Are people still making money from facebook apps these days? I thought it was over a while back (and thus why the mass exodus to develop on the iPhone although

Are people still making money from facebook apps these days? I thought it was over a while back (and thus why the mass exodus to develop on the iPhone although apple's approval process sucks.)

mattmaroon 17y ago
Are you joking? The top Facebook apps make more in a month than the top iPhone apps make in a lifetime. Even mid level apps, the sort that would never make the top 25 on iTunes, make more in a year than a top 10 paid app on iTunes does. Try Googling for Zynga Revenues. The Facebook platform is orders of magnitude more profitable than iPhone. Don't mistake buzz for profitability.
- buggy_code 17y ago
  Thanks for the tip. I can't up vote you enough. Almost tempted to create new HN accounts just to up vote you.
  - buggy_code 17y ago
    Why all the downvotes? (I don't mind downvoted, just curious about an explaination).
    - JimmyL 17y ago
      I would guess for the notion of creating another HN account to sockpuppet/additionally up-rate someone.
    - icey 17y ago
      Whenever I get downvotes, I stop to consider whether or not my comment has added to the conversation. If I think it has, and I can't figure out why I got downvoted, I just move on. Of course now I re-read all my comments right after I post them, so I tend to delete quite a few before voting happens either way.
- pistoriusp 17y ago
  Do you have data that you could use to backup your post?
  - blader 17y ago
    http://www.google.com/search?q=zynga+revenues http://www.google.com/search?q=zynga+revenues
- coglethorpe 17y ago
  > Zynga Don't get me started on my Mafia Wars addiction.
  - run4yourlives 17y ago
    Do you pay for that crap though?
  - elai 17y ago
    The game that can be (and is) played by a script.
    - teej 17y ago
      World of Warcraft can also be played by a script. That hasn't hurt it's profitability or popularity.
      - mattmaroon 17y ago
        Does World of Warcraft still make money? I thought everyone was on the iPhone all day now ;)
- blader 17y ago
  Matt, the more people think that Facebook apps don't make any money, the happier I think we'll both be. =)
  - mattmaroon 17y ago
    Ha, true. If it weren't broadly available information that you almost had to close your eyes to miss I'd never mention it.
alex_c 17y ago
Straight-up ad network banners won't make much money, but incentivized apps can pull in some serious cash.
- mattmaroon 17y ago
  Actually, you'd be surprised on the banners too. They've gotten better. We've been seeing regular 50 cents eCPM from just 1 banner, and if we tried hard, we could probably work in another one or two without seriously degrading the user experience. That adds up fast, since the platform makes it not too hard to get to hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of pageviews a day. 1m page views per day at 50 cents eCPM is still $182k per year. Not a bad second income stream.
  - alex_c 17y ago
    50c eCPM is definitely not bad on FB (of course, it depends on a lot of factors :p) Which ad network do you use?

Are people still making money from facebook apps these days? I thought it was over a while back (and thus why the mass exodus to develop on the iPhone although apple's approval process sucks.)

mattmaroon 17y ago

Are you joking? The top Facebook apps make more in a month than the top iPhone apps make in a lifetime. Even mid level apps, the sort that would never make the top 25 on iTunes, make more in a year than a top 10 paid app on iTunes does. Try Googling for Zynga Revenues. The Facebook platform is orders of magnitude more profitable than iPhone. Don't mistake buzz for profitability.

buggy_code 17y ago
Thanks for the tip. I can't up vote you enough. Almost tempted to create new HN accounts just to up vote you.
- buggy_code 17y ago
  Why all the downvotes? (I don't mind downvoted, just curious about an explaination).
  - JimmyL 17y ago
    I would guess for the notion of creating another HN account to sockpuppet/additionally up-rate someone.
  - icey 17y ago
    Whenever I get downvotes, I stop to consider whether or not my comment has added to the conversation. If I think it has, and I can't figure out why I got downvoted, I just move on. Of course now I re-read all my comments right after I post them, so I tend to delete quite a few before voting happens either way.
pistoriusp 17y ago
Do you have data that you could use to backup your post?
- blader 17y ago
  http://www.google.com/search?q=zynga+revenues http://www.google.com/search?q=zynga+revenues
coglethorpe 17y ago
> Zynga Don't get me started on my Mafia Wars addiction.
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  Do you pay for that crap though?
- elai 17y ago
  The game that can be (and is) played by a script.
  - teej 17y ago
    World of Warcraft can also be played by a script. That hasn't hurt it's profitability or popularity.
    - mattmaroon 17y ago
      Does World of Warcraft still make money? I thought everyone was on the iPhone all day now ;)
blader 17y ago
Matt, the more people think that Facebook apps don't make any money, the happier I think we'll both be. =)
- mattmaroon 17y ago
  Ha, true. If it weren't broadly available information that you almost had to close your eyes to miss I'd never mention it.

alex_c 17y ago

Straight-up ad network banners won't make much money, but incentivized apps can pull in some serious cash.

mattmaroon 17y ago
Actually, you'd be surprised on the banners too. They've gotten better. We've been seeing regular 50 cents eCPM from just 1 banner, and if we tried hard, we could probably work in another one or two without seriously degrading the user experience. That adds up fast, since the platform makes it not too hard to get to hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of pageviews a day. 1m page views per day at 50 cents eCPM is still $182k per year. Not a bad second income stream.
- alex_c 17y ago
  50c eCPM is definitely not bad on FB (of course, it depends on a lot of factors :p) Which ad network do you use?