Monday 26 November 2012

The Versagram app has been downloaded 3 million times

"What it is: Versagram is an iOS app that lets users post what are essentially status updates inside of Instagram. Popular among teens, users choose from a variety of background "themes," including pictures of a sky filled with balloons and a spherical head of dandelion seeds, and either insert their own text or choose from a library of celebrity quotes from the likes of Adele and Effie Trinket of "The Hunger Games." (They can also post to Apple's iMessage.)
User base: Versagram's creator, Ian Broyles, estimates that the app has been downloaded 3 million times since he shipped it to the App Store in February and that it's currently being downloaded between 6,000 and 10,000 times a day. From what he can tell, the majority of users are under 16 and plenty are under 13 (the official cut-off for Instagram and other social-media sites).
A random sampling of recent Versagram posts with the hashtag #versalove supports that assessment. One message in the stream that's overlaid on a picture of clouds reads "OMG!! So happy! I got a new iPod today from my parents!" while another in cursive over a red background says, "I still like that person but I'm not going to tell him!"
[...]
How it makes money: The app is free, but Mr. Broyles makes the majority of his income off purchases of supplemental "packs" of themes that cost $0.99 each. As of Nov. 16, Versagram was 23rd in a ranking of top-grossing iPhone utility apps, according to App Annie. (A competitor, Tweegram, which preceded Versagram and launched in mid-2011, isn't far behind in 40th place.) He also said he's exploring the concept of advertiser-sponsored themes."

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