LOLapps: The Biggest Facebook App Builder You Never Heard Of
Today, the white label application builder called LOLapps emerged from stealth mode to announce that they now have 44 million unique visitors using their tools. The company has been operating since early 2008, allowing users to create both quizzes and gifts on social networking platforms like Bebo, Facebook, and others. A user-generated content builder like this may seem like no big deal, but for LOLapps, it's big business.
For over a year now, LOLapps has been quietly operating, gaining more and more users who have now created hundreds of thousands of applications. What's interesting about this company is how well they're succeeding in a down economy like this. While so many companies today are tightening their belts and laying off employees, LOLapps reports they're profitable, they're hiring, and their employees enjoy nice perks like free meals...and a fridge stocked with beer! (Sounds like a fun place to work, doesn't it?)
The core product at LOLapps is actually two things: a quiz creator and a gift creator. You may not have much use for these types of applications yourself, but then, you would be in the minority. When it comes to social networks like Facebook, gifts and quizzes are some of the most popular activities taking place.
With the LOLapps tools, you're walked through a step-by-step process which allows you to create your very own custom gifts and custom quizzes which you can then share with your friends.
Essentially, the LOLapps application turns everyday users into application developers - without the user ever really knowing that's what's going on. With clear instructions written in casual, conversational language, the LOLapps building tools hop users through the somewhat convoluted and complicated steps (at least that's how they would appear to an end user) necessary to register as a developer on the social network and get the application published.
For now, the company says their business model is similar to that of a website-creation tool from ages ago: Geocities. Back in the early Web 1.0 days, users could create their own web pages at Geocities and the company made money by showing ads on those pages. LOLapps is working pretty much the same way today, except now the ads appear in apps, not web sites. LOLapps is also using virtual goods to drive revenue in some company-created applications but they will not be inserting those paid goods into the apps created by users themselves, LOLapps CEO Kavin Stewart tells us.
If you want to get a feel for what kinds of applications are being built with the LOLapps tools, we asked the company for the top apps, both quizzes and gifts. Here are the results - do any of these sound familiar?
Top 10 Quizzes
- What Is Your Future Life?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/futurelife/ - What Greek God are you
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-greek-god-fdde/ - What Type Of Heart Do You Have?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/whatheart/ - What's Your Best Quality?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/bestquality-asdf/ - Which movie star are you?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/whatmovie-asdf/ - What type of person do you attract?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/attract-asdf/ - What song are you?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-song-are-jcge/ - What will your Daughter be named?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-will-your-hfie/ - What video game character are you?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-video-gam-bhdb/ - What Kind of Music Are You?
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/musictype/
Top 10 Gifts
- Guardian Angels
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/guardian-angel-iibg - Because You're Special
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/because-your-s-badgc - Friendship
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/friendship-ciabh - Pinky Gifts
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/yildizs-gifts-djah - Childhood Memories of the 80s
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/childhood-memo-jhcf - Strawberry Gifts
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/strawberry-gif-bggdd/ - Girly Girl Gifts
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/girly-girl-gi-geheh - Forever Friends Bears
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/forever-friend-fbgi - SUSHI
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/sushi-ifia - CHOCOLATE!
URL: http://apps.facebook.com/chocolate-bbghb
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So my question ... are the making a butt load of money doing this or not? I mean, I'm all for building Facebook apps etc. but how much money is there in it?
I wonder how long it'll be before they realise that they can't legally allow users to create gifts such as the (copyrighted) "Forever Friends" bears?
So this is the company behind all that Quiz spam which floods our News Feeds! Bloddy hell. I'm going to bomb their buildings !!
This is the part of Facebook where I feel too old / digitally immigrant / serious. I guess that the quizzes and the gifts mostly used by teenagers. I can think of enterprise usage for the quizzes, but since their reputation is a non-serious one, it will be difficult to change their branding.
Seems excessive to create entire application for 1 single quiz, are they doing this to get around notification and message sending limits for applications? Seems very spammy.
I would expect Facebook to do something about dis-aggregating the exact same functionality across multiple apps soon, because its a bit dishonest and spamming up everybody's home feeds.
I hate those annoying gift and quiz requests, BLAH!
It's a good day to declare that I don't own a Facebook and never will. That is all.
Oh, and enjoy your gift and quiz applications.
You guys are missing the point ... groundswells, viral marketing, world wide raves ... whatever you want to call it. small apps like this are easy and inexpensive for the small business world to implement. Never has the small business sector had the means to compete with the big boys. If you can create a quiz or gift that everybody just cant help but pass on, because its so catchy ... you can simultaneously promote your own business faster and farther than ever before. its simply brilliant.
All of these quiz apps are the same. No multiple choice, no survey... the same formula over and over "What X are you?" Not very versatile. As a marketing professional I need more.
hi all this quiz are very good
thanks for comments
your comments is very good
While label apps make boat load of money. 44 million users, if then can make 50 cents/user/year, its $22 mil and that's way conservative. I am sure this company is run by less then a dozen geeks...all under 30.
This takes names of contacts, and puts them as ,,,viewed your photo....thousands of names come up...this is like a virus,,,stay away
Howard
but lolapps have just notified developers of games on facebook that they are pulling the plug on us and we lose months of work for the sake of their profit margin, so if they claim to be so profitable how come they cant afford to keep game creator alive, obviously they favour stupid gifting and quiz games
shame on lolapps
I personally hate LOLapps, even though I don't know anything about them other than the fact they create those annoying quizzes.
In my opinion their products have a heavy social cost on society; Americans spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of hours a year mindlessly clicking on their products.
Do they contribute anything? Not really. Are they profitable? Probably.