Have you ever stop to think why Microsoft’s platform has a larger market share than Apple’s despite Apple having a better product? Why did Google gain market share compared to Yahoo and Microsoft? The answer is the same – Microsoft and Google made money for themselves but also created opportunities for developers to make money off of their platforms.
The rules of the game have not changed. Let us look at three popular platforms of today – Facebook, iPhone and Twitter. Facebook made money for itself while iPhone made money not just for itself but for its developers while Twitter makes money for its developers without making any money for itself.
Monetization on facebook, iPhone and twitter
Facebook was the first social networking site with an open platform, which attracted many developers; this increased Facebook’s popularity at the cost of then popular myspace. Facebook made money for itself but didn’t offer an opportunity for developers to make money directly off of its platform even though many developers have managed to use it as a good indirect channel for marketing and sales. It still remains popular, but is not the most preferred platform for the developer community anymore. So unless the Facebook platform offers a direct monetization opportunity for developers, it will not stay the most popular social networking site.
Apple’s iPhone platform was the first mobile platform that enabled software developers to easily make money with a clear 70-30 monetization model; this increased its popularity. Now, with a long waiting list of developers trying to get their applications certified, I hope Apple does something before other platforms start to gain the attention of developers.
Twitter is the only platform that has never made money for itself but offers many opportunities for its developer community to make money. Twitter’s altruistic behavior is one of the many reasons for its popularity; I just hope Twitter itself soon figures out a way to make money lest others that depend on its existence for revenue may have to look elsewhere.
What is your experience? Share your stories on which platform have you made more money on? Which platform is the most monetization friendly?
R. Paul Singh
Hi Paul,
Good analysis, but just to add that actually many developers have made good money already couple of years ago and still today thru Nokia before app store existed.
Nokia had already offered business opportunity to developers thru its Download! & the other channels. There is really a large developer community especially in Europe… you will be surprised. However, today looks like that Apple is the one that defines the app store type of business. Nokia OVI store is now just a logical and a must transition due to market change. As to face book I agree 100%, for developer zero value, in a long run no enough value for users either in comparison with other SN who are surrounding themselves with developers. Today, everyone is fighting for mind share of developer communities in every part of the globe, huge investment is undergoing, check out Vodafone Betavine, Google Africa etc.
Nice day
Thanks for your comments. I am very familiar with Nokia and its power in countries outside of the US. I worked for a developer where most of our revenue was on Nokia platform. Unfortunately, they never made it easy for developers to make money due to various reasons: inconsistency in positioning, distribution and release incompatibilities. Making money on Nokia today is no different than writing to Windows and making money off Microsoft platforms i.e. you do the work and you are on your own to develop, market and create the revenue engine something which was democraticized by Apple and other SNS sites.
Regarding operators, as you can see in my previous blogs, I think they have and had the best opportunity to make money on app stores and help developer community make money. Unfortunately, they have not learnt how to do it easy for developers as their size and various vested interests within the company doesn’t make it easy for them to act in the interest of developing markets. Hopefully new initiatives from the likes of China Mobile and Vodafone will change that.
facebook how does it make money
With 500 million (and growing) unique users worldwide, Facebook is the number one social networking site in terms of activity and subscriptions. What started as a garage initiative by Mark Zuckerberg has now become the biggest phenomenon on the internet.