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“We have 3,000,000 users, now what?”, startup asks
September 20th, 2007
Shortly after the Facebook Platform opened in May, Renkoo, a web service focused on improving the way friends arrange social events, created a Facebook application called “Booze Mail” that lets users give virtual drinks to each other. Like many other companies, Renkoo (founded by Adam Rifkin and Joyce Park in 2005) wanted to test the Facebook waters with an app related to its core off-Facebook service.
However, unlike most experimental apps, Booze Mail took off: it’s currently the 15th most actively used application on Facebook, with over 300,000 daily users and 3,000,000 total installations.
Like other creators of early successful apps, Renkoo is now unsure where exactly it will go with its newfound hit.
“The success of Booze Mail took us by surprise, and we’re still figuring out where the company and its products should go from here,” said Adam Rifkin, Renkoo CEO.
The question facing Rifkin is one facing several startups who now find themselves with multiple applications across different platforms.
- Should the company focus on one platform/application over the other?
- Can applications on different platforms be integrated without messing up both?
- Should Facebook be used primarily as lead generation to a destination site, or is it worthy of more strategic focus?
- What about other platforms, like MySpace and Bebo?
“Booze Mail on Facebook sends tens of thousands of people a day to Renkoo.com, despite the fact that we’ve made no effort to connect the Booze Mail experience to the Renkoo application. That said, we are in the process of building the booze-mail.com website so people can send Booze Mail without being on Facebook,” said Rifkin.
“But maybe Booze Mail shouldn’t be driving additional Renkoo usage since there’s very little overlap in the people each application appeals to.”
Like many social networking application startups, Renkoo must weigh the risks and benefits of different platform strategies. It’s a new dilemma not often faced by social services before the Facebook Platform.
“We’re likely to try everything, and see what the users show us they like through their behaviors,” Rifkin said.
What are your thoughts on what Renkoo should do?
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September 20th, 2007 at 3:35 am
but that is not the worst problem a start up (Boozemail) could have!
September 20th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Sell text ads at the bottom of the mails like yahoo mail does.
Stay inside social networks that your target audience uses. MySpace skews a lot younger than FB. Do you want highschoolers sending each other virtual drinks?
Add microtransactions to send SMS drinks to people or multimedia messages to people’s phones.
Talk to alcohol vendors about doing a specially branded drink for them for a fee. “The Absolut” martini, Captain Morgan, etc.
Have users select their favorite drinks and sell access to those users to the alcohol vendors. “Hey look, a new flavor of vodka is coming out next week!”
Sell coupons to local bars/clubs to users in that area. Have users send the coupons w/ virtual drinks to each other. “Here’s a buy one/get one for Rick’s Place. See you tomorrow night!”
Hire a bizdev person to figure this all out for you.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I think it is typical of the vast majority of applications on Facebook. Ultimately an app like booze mail doesn’t really have any value because there is no value in “3,000,000 installs”.
Booze Mail is just a free toy that people play with and will eventually get bored of using.
If people want to make money on Facebook then they have to have a business plan before they build the app. What successful company do you know that started with, “lets put something there and lets see what happens.”
September 20th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
delicious
ebay
craigslist
flickr
twitter
librarything
you’re right though, there probably isn’t any value to “3MM installs,” but I bet there’s some value in 392k people using your app on a daily basis (courtesy of Appsaholic). A 12% activity rate is pretty good compared to other apps in the top 100.
that’s 392k chances to sell something, if only you could do affiliate sales of liquor.
September 20th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
1) Sell Ads
2) Smile to yourself realizing you’ll never have to work for someone else again
3) Optimize ad placement/content
4) Buy an Island
Well at least that’s my plan.
September 20th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I don’t know if I would compare any of those companies to an application that allows you to put an icon of a glass of tequila on your friends profile. That is not much of a business model.
And I think you are also dreaming if you think activity correlates to “a chance to sell something”. The advertising model is not going to work in Facebook. Facebook is not like the candy rack at the local grocery store where you can convince someone to buy something just because they happen to be using your app.
The successful apps will be those that have the ecomm built in like iLike or the Chase +1 group which is a brilliant idea. Join the group, get a credit card and gain karma points to buy stuff, I can only imagine the amount of money Chase makes off of the 34,000 people that have that credit card.
September 21st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
[...] for something you’ve been thinking about for awhile. Over on Inside Facebook there’s a great post about how Renkoo’s Boozemail application has become really popular. Given that the [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 1:09 pm
[...] and foremost, as evidenced by the fact that they have 3 million Facebook users it is clear that there is something there "there". Whether or not that can be converted [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 3:31 pm
[...] Justin Smith, Inside Facebook: Unlike most experimental apps, Booze Mail took off: it’s currently the 15th [...]
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Be happy you enhanced the lives of millions and find a business guy that can show you how to make money off of your application.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 pm
this sounds so bubble-ish.. all users and no money.. did renkoo create a bubble amidst all that hype in facebook apps?
here’s a suggestion, start looking for alcohol-related businesses, bars and get them to sponsor their icons hyper -locally
September 25th, 2007 at 10:02 am
[...] Inside Facebook » “We have 3,000,000 users, now what?”, startup asks That’s a good question indeed. What do you do when you have an app called “Booze Mail”, which has 300 000 daily users? [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
[...] Inside Facebook - “We have 3,000,000 users, now what?”, startup asks Comment: “Add microtransactions to send SMS drinks to people or multimedia messages to people’s phones. Have users select their favorite drinks and sell access to those users to the alcohol vendors. “Hey look, a new vodka is coming out next week!” (tags: facebook socialgraph businessmodel applications strategy tactics mobile brandedcontent brandedutility productnarratives boozemail renkoo) [...]