Sustainable App Development

for Social Networks

Leonard Lin
Managing Partner, Regional Head (Asia)
Battle Stations
•  85,000 monthly unique visitors and
generates more than 52,000,000 page
impressions per month.

•  125 times more page views per user

than other popular Facebook
applications

•  High daily active user percentage

•  74% of users in 21 – 35 age range

•  Marketing (Mar 2008)

–  Intensive Facebook Advertising and
Google Ad-words
–  Sweepstakes for players (xbox360,
Wii, or gift vouchers)
“…the future of Facebook gaming.”
–  Spamming within Facebook
–  Friend Invite incentives
“Where are they now?”
- 7 months after the FB platform was launched

•  “Top friends” isn’t the top app anymore

•  Wall apps have degenerated into spam apps
•  Many of the most viral apps have lost users
•  No one has made a lot of money
“Categorizing FB apps”

•  Chain letter spammy apps

•  One hit wonder apps
•  Seasonal Apps
•  Sustainable Apps
“I hate that traveling bear.”
“I prefer my mp3 player.”
“I use this once and never use it again.”
“See you next year.”
“Too many cheaters spoil the soup.”
“Best and Most sustainable game on FB…”

“… also most likely to get their pants sued off.”

“Looking good!”
“The best is yet to come… well hopefully.”
“What makes an App sustainable?”
“What makes an App sustainable?”
•  Sustaining User Interest
–  Maintaining user growth
–  Keep those users (get them involved)
–  Sense of community (user created content)
–  Stop cheaters

•  Monetization
–  Advertising
–  Virtual Item sales
“First App pageant ever?”
“Fan Fiction… so we don’t have to write our own stories”
•  “The truth of the founding of Sios and the Clan of the Pirate’s Covent is shrouded in much mystery and speculation, but we believe we know this much. Our earliest records,
many older than a thousand AAPs (Annual Action Points), trace our roots to the religious, peace-loving civilization known as the Priory…”

320-400 AAP: The Priory is founded and led by its Scion, Am-raan, and Al Amraan is his throne. The surrounding lands, at that time among the most fertile of any known, are
the Scion’s lands, which would eventually slip to simply ‘Sios’.

760-800 AAP: The Mirage Fortress reigns over Al Amraan, arriving from lands in the west. The Scion remains strictly pacifist. In 799 AAP, engineers Goth the Betrayer and
Aero I discover plasma rock welding, and the resultant ships form the ‘vanguard’ of an armada which destroys the Mirage Fortress (plasma rocks would not required in
second generation Vanguard-class Destroyers). For disobeying the Scion, Goth is expelled from Al Amraan, but without the Mirage Fortress preventing travel, Goth founds Al
Goth to the north. Aero I uses technology gleaned from the Mirage Fortress to build a mansion in the sky, Aero’s City.
844 AAP: A horde of orcs and goblins invade northern lands, fleeing a monstrous terror in the southern archipelagoes. Goth and Al Amraan ally, but with the greenskins’ last
gasp, Goth foments his revenge upon those who expelled him, and lays siege to Al Amraan. A religio-warrior aristocracy takes power in Al Amraan, and the remnants of the
Priory flee to Aero’s City.

844 AAP – 1023 AAP: Hostilities wax and wane between the cities of Al Goth and Al Amraan, and attrition to the island results in a proliferation of Rogue Warships. In 1022
AAP, Al Goth finishes construction of a battle station mined directly from the largest deposit of plasma rock ever found, a battle station expected to quickly end the war. The
arrogance of carving a fortress directly from plasma rock is revealed when ships from Al Amraan, equipped to hurl liquid fire, melt then ignite the unstable plasma rock. The
resulting cataclysmic explosion scorches the lands around Al Amraan to desert. The ships’ subcannons are named Immolators in honour of their crews’ sacrifice.
1024 AAP: Al Goth is bankrupted by the battlestation and the lands around Al Amraan devastated, forcing peace. As Al Amraan rebuilds, Al Goth undertakes a period of
extensive exploration and trading to refill its treasury, particularly intense along the jungles of the Core Axis of Islands. Al Goth power and influence grow, and in 1340 AAP,
the most powerful of the patrician families elect Jade as the first Emperor, and Al Goth, seat of the Empire’s power, is renamed Imperial City.
1350-1420 AAP: Al Amraan, bereft of its fertile lands, becomes rich by supporting a clandestine campaign against the trading activity of Imperial City along the Core Axis. A
brilliant young sailor named Pirate is thought to catch her first taste of battle at this time.
“Ah but here, we get to the most interesting parts!”
1440 AAP: Al Amraan operations along the Core Axis become a victim of their own success, when Secret Overlord Pirate leads a coup d’état at the principal port of the Core
Axis. Pirate names her followers Champions in gratitude, but with a tenuous grip on their loyalty, appoints a council of Admirals. Livid at the betrayal, Aero IV decrees Pirate
and her Admirals ‘a heretical coven’. Not lacking a sense of humour, Pirate renames her flagship Coven Thirst.
1440-1480 AAP: Pirate’s ships number few, and cannot dissuade exploration in the Core Axis. Instead, Pirate levies taxes on traders and explorers who must stop at the port
now colloquially referred to as the Cor’xis Quay. Though she does not outright declare war on Al Amraan or the Empire, Coven Thirst, Reaper, and Darksider prevent the
establishment of new ports.

1460-1480 AAP: The Empire develops a new class of Captain trained to hunt followers of Pirate, ‘pirates’ by Imperial propaganda. In 1480 AAP, the Imperial Army dispatches
four battle squadrons of Commanders to Corxis, only to find the Al Amraan fleet locked in combat with Pirate’s fleet. While the intent of the Al Amraan fleet is to capture and
execute Pirate, the Imperial Commanders assume an invasion of Imperial lands. They descend on both fleets, and though the tactics of the Commanders are unimaginative,
they are effective. (As an interesting note, the Empire developed the Battle Royale-class Destroyers as a direct outcome of this momentous three-way encounter.) Both
opposing fleets are crushed. Coven Thirst is boarded and Pirate captured, Reaper sunk with all hands, and Darksider seen only to limp away to the Jade Archipelago. Pirate
and the broken Coven Thirst are paraded over Imperial City, then Pirate is tortured by Avian Inquisitors allied to the Empire. Her grave and records of her life are expunged.

1481 AAP - present: The sinking of the Al Amraan fleet at Corxis ignites the Second War between Al Amraan and the Empire. Imperial power wanes.
$$$
•  Advertising
–  Public Ad Networks / FB Ad networks ~ $0.01 per CPM
•  Eg. Google Ad Sense, Lookery, etc
•  Anyone can get in

–  Premium Ad Networks ~ $0.30 - $1.00 per CPM / CPI

•  Eg. ValueClick, Tribal Fusion, etc
•  Need to do biz dev to join network + minimum amt. traffic

–  CPA Networks ~ $1.00 - $10.00 per Action

•  Eg. Commission Junction, Peanut Labs, etc
•  Higher payout but only when user makes a definite action

–  Direct Ad Sales ~ $10,000 - $35,000 per deal (6 mth. Ad Contract)

•  Need contacts + must do a lot of biz dev
•  Need your own Ad server
“Are Advertisers excited about
the Facebook Platform?”

Apparently no.
•  Virtual Goods Sales

•  450 / 872 said they would buy virtual

items. Spending between $1 - $15
~ $2,153 / month

•  145 / 872 said they would pay $5 -

$10 a month for premium features
~ $805 / month
Contact Information
Singapore: Leonard Lin +65 93681226 leonard@tylerproject.com
5 Shenton Way, #37-02 UIC Building, Singapore 668808

United States: Nicholas Lin +1 408 627 407 nicholas@tylerproject.com

37 Wall Street, #4F, New York, NY 10005

Europe: Benjamin Xie +31 06 34453777 benjamin@tylerproject.com

91A Adrienmilderstraat, 3022NL. Rotterdam. The Netherlands