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App Developer Claims to Make $1M Per Month

- By - Source : Tom's Guide US

The developer behind Tap Tap Revenge apps is taking in $1 million per month

For many developers, the iPhone and iPod Touch is a gold mine. Case in point: app developer Tapulous Inc., founded in February 2008, only has 20 employees under its roof. The company's sole purpose is to develop for Apple's platform, with its initial effort, Tap Tap Revenge, one of the original App Store launch titles. One year later, the company claims that it's taking in $1 million a month.

According to Reuters, the Tap Tap Revenge game series has been installed more than 20 million times, and more than 600 million total games have been played thus far; research group comScore said that Tap Tap Revenge is currently on one-third of iPhones and iPod Touch devices. Tapulous also offers similar apps including Tap Tap Dance, Nine Inch Nails Revenge, Lady Gaga Revenge, and more.

Outside the sale of its apps, Tapulous makes a chunk of its money by selling songs within the games, and through in-game adverts. Reuters said that the company is obviously profitable, however the precise sales data wouldn't be disclosed. However, CEO Bart Decrem said that the company plans to "ride a wave of exponential growth in mobile app commerce," especially in the next two years.

"It's going to be big and all of a sudden people are going to say, 'holy cow, where did those guys come from,'" he said, referencing companies such as Playfish and Playdom.

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SneakySnake 12/21/2009 7:49 PM
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dang, thats over 500,000 thou a year for each employee

jonpaul37 12/21/2009 7:55 PM
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"for each employee" good luck with that, my estimate is that about 3-4 of them see the majority of the $$$, the rest are just peons who will make $50,000 per year.

ilockitdown 12/21/2009 7:56 PM
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sliem 12/21/2009 7:56 PM
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If only everyone in this world would give me 1 penny... Just 1 penny from each of you, cmon!

o0RaidR0o 12/21/2009 7:57 PM
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Don't know much about how this type of market works, but if Apple got one thing right was the $1 per app prototype. Unlike anything M$, no I'm not a Macfanboy, I'm a PC, where everything done down to the developers is about money. Yes Apple is about money to, but they got the app store right from the beginning. Make it affordable, this way if it's a bust you don't feel as cheated. Offer something fun, and cheap and then create a service around it and they will come.

boxa786 12/21/2009 7:57 PM
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Thats a louda bollocks, if they were making that much from there app's Im sure their "wave" would have already hit the news by now, with all details confirmed and public. Heck, Im sure apple will pay them to release that info just to get more publicity on their products and their app store.

ilockitdown 12/21/2009 7:57 PM
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pocketdrummer 12/21/2009 8:00 PM
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In-app Adverts really piss me off. It doesn't matter if it's on a phone or your computer, it's absolute crap and needs to be smashed as soon as humanly possible. You can't take a crap without someone shoving a product up your exposed anus. I canceled cable for this exact reason... now I watch everything on Hulu (where i can browse in a new tabs while the BS is muted). I guess I'll have to turn to programming for my friggin' self soon.

rambo117 12/21/2009 8:04 PM
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sliem :
If only everyone in this world would give me 1 penny... Just 1 penny from each of you, cmon!


one of these days im gonna ask everyone in my town for a quarter... when I have that much free time ;)

rodney_ws 12/21/2009 8:06 PM
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I detest Apple, but I gotta hand it to 'em... they nailed it with iTunes/iPod and again with the App Store. It's just crazy to think that most any programmer out there can create some application and receive 70% of the retail price of it... lord knows why they have so many apps now! And there's Apple just raking in that other 30%! I look forward to a Verizon iPhone in 2010!

atticus052 12/21/2009 8:11 PM
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First the gov taxes the business' income and the company gets its $600,000 a month. Then you get taxed for another 40% on your income have your 18 grand to spend, then you go to spend it and the government takes 10% of that... so $216k~ish a year depending on what state you live in, AND you know the CEO isn't taking an even share.

My props to the entrepreneurs though...

Anonymous 12/21/2009 8:18 PM
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Never heard of any of the afformentioned companies before. And now that i have... Nothing has changed.

tenor77 12/21/2009 8:43 PM
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The problem is that the mobile app business is a risky venture. It's volitile and even for Mac lovers, you still see people moving from phone to phone, carrier to carrier. The average person keeps their phone for what? 2-3 years tops?

Great for this company to be in the right place at the right time but when the next iProduct or awesome phone comes out that doesn't work with their apps, you'll see people jumping like flies at a junkyard.

cyprod 12/21/2009 9:09 PM
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is the gross or net? Because they surely have to pay licensing fees for the music they use, and I could see that chewing a lot of that million a month if the number they're giving is gross.

Anonymous 12/22/2009 12:03 PM
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Sounds like they are trying to hype an IPO before flying off to a non-extradition country to me.

matt87_50 12/22/2009 1:09 AM
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wow, I'm sure that almost makes up for the millions of developers who have failed (after giving Apple their dev fee of course, Apple always wins).

backin5 12/22/2009 2:01 AM
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sliem :
If only everyone in this world would give me 1 penny... Just 1 penny from each of you, cmon!



But then we'd have to give everybody 1 penny (fair is fair), and if everybody gave everybody 1 penny, we'd still all be broke.

backin5 12/22/2009 2:07 AM
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... and have about $67,913,000 at the same time.

socrates047 12/22/2009 5:43 AM
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I got Tap Tap revenge 3, Nine Inch Nails, and Metallica for free; I guess i feel less guilty, since neither me or my fellow hackers are bankrupting you guys.

santeana 12/22/2009 7:26 AM
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tenor77 :
The problem is that the mobile app business is a risky venture. It's volitile and even for Mac lovers, you still see people moving from phone to phone, carrier to carrier. The average person keeps their phone for what? 2-3 years tops? Great for this company to be in the right place at the right time but when the next iProduct or awesome phone comes out that doesn't work with their apps, you'll see people jumping like flies at a junkyard.



Nah. They'll just do what all software vendors do. Write a quick update or patch for the app and then charge ya to download that update and make even more money off of you.

mavroxur 12/22/2009 7:51 PM
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ilockitdown :
...so each employee is making a $600 000 salary before taxes!




Business major you are not....