Ok, so here’s a cool story for each of Us entrepreneurs out there.

How soon can we expect our app to get serious traction and serious interest so as to be worth a substantial amount ?

Within 2 years of going live. Maybe a year… If we’re really great and pretty lucky, maybe 6 months. After all Snapchat, Airbnb, Whatsapp none of these got serious traction very soon on going live.

That’s right, Airbnb took 30 months to reach 1 million nights, Jan Koum was almost considering quitting when didn’t get any serious no. of users within a few months of Whatsapp’s launch ,

But I am not talking about a Unicorn app as that takes time, money, lot of funding and destiny.

The App i am talking about is one which reached 5 million users and 2.5 million Daily actives in JUST 9 weeks.

The App i am talking about is not one which takes a cool million and many months to build. One can build an app like this in a few thousand and scale it in a few thousand more.

The app i am talking about is Simple, easy to use and extremely addictive and was Acquired within WEEKS of launch for a substantial amount.

And if you guessed it as the TBH app – the To Be Honest app, you guessed right.

HOW did a mobile app with a SIMPLE EXECUTABLE idea end up making serious Money?

If you follow social App start-ups you’re probably aware of apps like Yo, Secret, Yik Yak and Sarahah. Some of these app failed where TBH has succeeded because they did not understand the basic premise of human behaviour.
People don’t like to be texted mean stuff about themselves, or abuses for that matter. Even if it is anonymous.

Most of these apps led to Cyber bullying and became apps with a negative association. The Teenage user segment is an especially vulnerable one.
What was needed was an app which could bring in Positive reinforcement and sharing among teens, avoided Cyber Bullying and had sufficiently enough functionality to develop interest.

So how does TBH control Cyberbullying ?

What’s the worst you can do when all you’re doing is answering cute objective type questions.

The beauty of the app is the simplicity of its solution. I am reminded of the discussion we had with our teachers when we were students on the fact how you could not BS in an objective type Answer. Sure, You could guess a choice. But you could not write lines and lines or stories and make up stuff. Objective type Answers led to more control.

Ergo, the app controls the question and provides only choices , and thus filters out any possibility of perverted, abusive, trolling commentary.

And so Epiphany cames to the team of To be Honest, who created the TBH app.

To be fair (or rather, To be Honest) the team had been working on apps since 2010 (other apps) with seed funding , so their success did take time coming. But this particular apps has only been months in making and has been launched in that classical closed set way that Facebook etc. launched.
It was launched in August 2017 and has got acquired in just 2 month’s or so.

In 9 weeks TBH became the No. 1 Free app on the Apple iTunes Marketplace.

Facebook took notice and not wanting to repeat a mistake of ignoring another Snapchat in making – went ahead and acquired them . The app nicely filled in their product portfolio and target segment, and was having a positive brand image all around.

How much did Facebook pay for To Be Honest app ?

TBH, we don’t have any official figures. No numbers have been released officially but from what i imagine considering the sheer user base the app has generated in such a small time – 5 million in a few weeks, i wouldn’t be surprised if the no. is very close to $100 million , maybe even $99 million (regulatory approval is apparently required $100 million onwards). $20 per user for CLV with nearly half the user’s being sticky is not a big price considering FB had paid around $42 for acquiring each Whatsapp user. Ofcourse, Whatsapp stickiness was and is always going to be much higher than an App like TBH but still for a target segment which FB hasn’t really attracted fully, $20 per user is pretty reasonable.

Moral of the Story:
Fancing VR, AR, AI and even fancier technologies apart – a simple , well built app with viral factor can still attract a company like Facebook and still be acquired for some serious money. The days for the App Entrepreneur are not yet over and did i just hear Tom Cruise say behind me – “SHOW ME THE MONEY” !!!

Are you looking to build an app like To Be Honest , or other social sharing App? Creative Spark Solution can help you build social sharing mobile apps which go viral. Contact us for more details and we’ll be happy to provide a no obligation consultation for your app idea.