App Name: Guess Who?
Total Users: 3,471 (25% active -> 880 active users)

We are going to use this post as a space to respond to a recent Tech Crunch article about two of our class’ apps passing the 1m install mark.

As a member of the Stanford class, I find this post and the discussion about the merit of these apps really interesting. I think the key takeaway is that the developers of KissMe and Send Hotness accomplished exactly what they set out to do–build an app whose sole purpose was to get as many users to install it as fast as possible. Given the time frame in which these apps have built their user bases, there is no argument that both developer teams hit a home run given their goals.

For those who complain about the avalanche of apps that are merely wrappers for the invite friends functionality–I consider myself part of this camp–the real person to direct this criticism to is facebook. The platform makes these type of apps not just possible, but incredibly easy. And developers have seen how successful this genre can be (the jury is still out as to why people would install 20 different versions of “poke”). So from a responding to enviroment perspective, it is no surprise that the vast majority of popular apps have followed this approach.

My team wanted to build something more substantial and focus on deep and continuous engagement. We adopted the classic board game Guess Who? and turned it social by creating boards with the faces of mutual friends when one person challenges another to a game (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=5225434263). We’ve had the app released for two weeks, and despite some major server problems, we’re only 100 users away from 1,000 daily active users (25% active user %). This is not bad, but it is far from the astounding growth of KissMe and Send Hotness.

What we care more about are metrics like:
- The average visitor goes to 7.6 pages. Nearly 7% of visitors go to 20+ pages–that is a veritable marathon for a web application.
- The average visitor spends over 6.5 minutes on the app.
- Perhaps most important, over 60% of our users have used the app more than 10 times.

I am thoroughly impressed with how many users KissMe and Send Hotness have acquired. At the same time, I am happy with the engagement metrics, despite relatively modest user numbers, our own app has garnered. Two different goals, two seemingly successful outcomes.