Interview

FreeAppADay's Bayen on adding social features, launching an app, and why free is a sustainable model

80% of FAAD developers generate more income

FreeAppADay's Bayen on adding social features, launching an app, and why free is a sustainable model
One of the most significant trends of 2010 has been developers dropping the price of their games on Apple's App Store to free in order to get them noticed and get a large number of people playing them.

A key agent in this has been the FreeAppADay website, which has been promoting free daily games since January.

With several new developments such as a standalone app and social features for its website planned to go live in early June, we caught up with founder Joe Bayen to get his views on the current situation.

Pocket Gamer: Why are you doing an app for FreeAppADay now?

Joe Bayen: We needed the site to be popular enough before launching the app in order to make a real impact. I believe we've now met that goal as we have a very large, global userbase and a Twitter following that's just passed the 10,000 mark.

Additionally, our website is not very iPhone friendly and my inbox was flooded with emails requesting us to develop a FreeAppADay application, so we had to do something about it, if only to stop the endless flow of emails.

How are you planning to use iAd in the app?

We currently have Google ads but we will switch to iAd for v1.2 to compare which network work best.

What's the secret of FAAD's success?

We're working very hard to make sure our success doesn't go to our heads. Our team is constantly striving to adjust our business model and we're constantly developing new products to improve our platform.

One example is the recent launch of the FAAD XML feed, which is meant to help developers retain their user base as well as maximise their in-apps purchase and ads revenue.

We also have an awesome research team which consistently strives to discover the best hidden gems in the App Store. The FAAD Tag is rapidly becoming a label of quality because of our stringent selection process and once we combined it with our various monetisation mechanisms it ensures that our promoted applications will remain successful once they switch back to paid.

Additionally, considering the fact that the iPhone market is growing faster outside of the US, our international presence is a key factor which allows our developers to maximise their returns. Crush The Castle, a top 20 paid app, is a great example. The developer recently launched a FAAD campaign to maximise its worldwide reach.

Finally, FAAD promoted applications remain visible as paid apps for a full month on the FreeAppADay.com site and soon on the FAAD app as well, which helps optimise the entire monetisation process.

But the bottom line is we're passionate about helping developers generate more income, because we've been there, struggling to make a name for ourselves, and we know how hard it is. We're really pleased each time we are able to create a new success story and help a developer succeed.

Do you think FAAD will provide a sustainable model?

The current model works. Around 80 percent of our developer partners are able to generate substantially more income following their FreeAppADay campaigns, but it's no miracle. Quality is the key ingredient in this process.

We're also able to extend our success in new areas. Previously we were able to dramatically increase the revenue generated from our promoted apps but reaching the top 100 paid apps chart remained elusive. But lately our hard work started to pay off with apps from the Chop Chop series (Chop Chop Ninja, Runner and Tennis) reaching the top 100.

And, most importantly, our latest App Store #1 app Creamy Ice hit the 28th spot on the paid App Store, which was a major achievement.

In addition, the arrival of the FAAD app means we will be able to directly promote paid apps, which is a brand new addition to our promotional armoury. I believe having the opportunity to reach millions of users on a daily basis will make the FAAD app a very powerful promotional instrument.

What more do you think Apple could do to improve discovery?

Not much, except making iPhones bigger, but since we now have iPads, I guess that problem is partially solved.

More seriously, a Genius system similar to what it does with iTunes would help, but discovery will always remain an issue with a total of 200,000 and increasing apps available.

What are your plans for the social aspects of the website?

We are adding several social networking features such as the ability to have a unique profile and add friends, and we are also integrating the My Wish feature which is present in the FAAD app.

This will be very helpful since it will help us track the most requested apps that people want to go free, making FreeAppADay a true user-generated platform.

Thanks to Joe for his time.

The FreeAppADay app is due to go live on June 8.
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.