I've worked on several Facebook Applications since the beginning of the year and although none of them have been massively successful hits, I've learned a couple of things about developing Facebook Applications. Hopefully, I can share some of what I've learned and experienced. I'm not going to talk much about the technical development process but instead, more of the marketing and business aspects. I'm also going to try to not make broad assumptive conclusions based on my experiences but instead, share my experiences and give conclusions that I'm pretty confident in. Some of us are making applications because we want to share our great ideas with the world but, all of us would like to monetize our ideas--don't lie, you know you do. :)
Facebook launched their application platform in the middle of 2007 and it has done very well since. Thousands of people have made applications for it and some businesses have sprouted from it. I was generally cautious of the Facebook Platform and did not look into it until mid-January of 2008. As of today, I have four active Facebook Applications that were developed solely by me and one other that I worked on. My applications aren't drawing any significant number of daily active users--I don't even have an application that has 1000 installs yet. The total combined user base of all my applications probably falls in around 1500 - 2000 installs. It isn't impressive but, keep reading.
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I haven't put much polish in my applications simply due to the fact that I don't know what the return on these applications are. My first app is just a Flash remake of Pong: Old School Tennis. There is no social or viral features to that application, I was just dipping my toes in the water. That application has around 200 installs which surprises me every day due to its utter lack of features but, I guess Pong is just a fun distraction. My second go at the platform delivered me my, arguably, most successful application so far: My Bookshelf. My Bookshelf still needs a lot of polish and feature additions. My vision for it was a lot more grand than what it currently is. The biggest difference between other applications like it is the shelf display that was done in Flash so it has a nice scrolling view. I've spent the most time developing My Bookshelf and it produces the most money in advertising revenue--it accounts for about 80% - 90% of my daily Facebook revenue through Social Media.
My fastest growing and most complete Facebook Application is FlipCup Challenge based on the drinking game of the same name--minus "Challenge". It has the social features that should be expected in a Facebook game like high scores amongst your friends, global high scores, challenges--hence the name--and the ability to invite your friends. FlipCup Challenge is growing at a faster rate than My Bookshelf but has not produced nearly as much revenue. While My Bookshelf suffers from a very poor retention rate--I believe due to its lack of polish--FlipCup does a very good job keeping users who have installed it. This leads me to believe that a certain level of polish is indeed necessary even though games like Zombies were pretty rudimentry and managed to attract millions of installs. The landscape for Facebook Applications is changing and developers are going to have to make more sophisticated applications in order to compete as the platform grows and matures.
The last of my personal applications is Sam's Solitaire. It is a simple solitaire game based solely on Windows's version of solitaire that everyone who runs Windows will have. It took me about a week to make it, working just a couple hours a day--I happen to have a full-time job as well. This application is quite generic except for the fact that I made it for a girl who plays quite a bit of solitaire on her phone--that must be a first, Facebook Application as a gift. So this application has a differentiating personality and a basic social feature that tells you how fast your friends have finished a game of Sam's Solitaire. None of my applications have been active for more than 6 months with Sam's Solitaire being active for less than two weeks.
The last application that I will talk about is Sheep Tycoon. It has the production polish because we developed it as professionals at Tiny Mantis Entertainment--an independent game company. This Facebook edition of Sheep Tycoon is a simplified version of a bigger game that we have been trying to find the funds to produce. The game on Facebook is relatively simple. The goal is to get the highest score possible by milking sheep and then turning the milk into butter, cheese, or leave it as is and bring it to one of the two waiting donkey's to be delivered to town--I happen to hold the second highest score as of this writing. Although Sheep Tycoon is a very pretty game, it doesn't have the same polish in social features. It is also a lot more original than any of the applications that I have made so it is difficult to gauge if such a game would appeal to the Facebook audience.
I've searched the web for Facebook marketing techniques and I have not found any definitive information. It appears to me that everyone is still trying to figure out how to tap the potential of the Facebook Platform. One technique that I've written about, viral loops, is something that I believe can be applied to Facebook. Some apps already have used this technique without even knowing it and some appear to be deliberately doing it but in uncreative and possibly annoying ways.
The main point that I've come away with in the last six months working with the Facebook Platform to develop viable business models is that an application's ability to generate revenue has more to do with how long a user stays in your application than it does with how many total installs or daily active users you have. Obviously, if there are a lot of installs and a lot of daily active users, there will be a certain amount of revenue that can be garnered from it but, that is just a law of numbers. To maximize the revenue potential of each user is to keep them in the application. Applications also need to have a certain level of polish to them or it will just be lost in the mix. The amount of applications on Facebook is growing everyday so having a unique selling point will eventually become crucial.
I have application ideas sitting in my Developer application--some of which are half finished apps. Some of them will probably never see the light of day either due to its complexity--my procrastination--or just better ideas skipping in line. We have a big application designed for Facebook at Tiny Mantis that we are trying to get funding for. We believe that this application will expand the definition of "social games"--which is a hot sector in the application market. I'm sure I am a little biased--I had a hand in its inception--but, if you are looking to fund social games, let us know.
Revenue being generated from advertising is probably not the best route for a truly sustainable or highly profitable model. I believe micro-transactions is way to go and Facebook is supposed to be working on a system for that. There is a great deal of potential in the Facebook Platform and I will continue to find ways to unlock it--along with the thousands of other developers, venture capitalists, and business people. Hopefully, I've provided some insights through my experiences. Maybe I'll have some more in the next six months. Until then, see you on Facebook.
Developing Facebook Applications
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