10 Million In 10 Weeks -- What Stanford Learned Building Facebook Apps

10 Million in 10 Weeks What Stanford Learned Building Facebook Apps A Stanford Course during Fall 2007 BJ Fogg, Ph.D. Dan Ackerman-Greenberg Rob Fan Graphing Social Patterns: March 2008 Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

10 Million in 10 Weeks Total Installed Users: 20M+ 5 apps @ 1M+ users 10 apps @ 100k users 20 apps @ 5k users Total Daily Active Users (DAU): 925k 6 apps with ~ 100k DAU 10 apps with > 10k DAU 19 apps with > 500 DAU 6 Apps in Facebook Top 100 Top Apps (according to Adonomics): ~ $10M Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Captology and Persuasion B Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

The Idea Comes Together BJ - Dave - Dan Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu D

Curriculum (Alpha Version) 3 Apps (!) Hoping to leverage . . . 1. Virality Huge reading list 2. Engagement Metrics-based grading 3. Education-focused Psychology of technology Expecting 20-40 students... Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu D

...120 showed up Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu R

...So we scared some students off. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Rob Fan Yee Lee Jia Shen Greg Schwartz ...and brought in more help! Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu D

7 person teaching team 73 students Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu D

Every class was exciting and surprising D Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Students drove us forward B Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Initial Success!!! R Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Success Stories Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu R

Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Students come together outside of class... D Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

10 Million in 10 Weeks Total Installed Users: 20M+ 5 apps @ 1M+ users 10 apps @ 100k users 20 apps @ 5k users Total Daily Active Users (DAU): 925k 6 apps with ~ 100k DAU 10 apps with > 10k DAU 19 apps with > 500 DAU 5 Apps in Facebook Top 100 Top Apps (according to Adonomics): ~ $10M Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu B

Final Expo in December 2007 500+ people show up Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu R

BayCHI Student Presentation B Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Aftermath $500,000 - $1,000,000+ revenue generated since September At least 3 companies formed At least 2 companies acquired More job offers than students can handle Dan drops out of school to work with Rob and 3 other students from the class Teach the class again soon Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu D

More Successes Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu R

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #1. It's never too late to create a winning app When we launched course, over 6000 Facebook apps existed. 10 weeks later, our students had 6 apps in the top 100 Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #2. Simplicity & clarity are key to app success Apps need to be easily understood (value prop) Apps need to be easy to use The wrong direction: Clever names Lots of features Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #3. Speed & flexibility in launch & iterations Many crummy trials beat deep thinking Flexibility beats quality Deadly: Getting too attached to one app idea. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #4. Community cooperation leads to success Students helped others a lot Sharing code, tips, insights . . . all were present in course. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #5. Individual opinions about app are worthless Don't be swayed by one person's opinion. Just get the app out there and see what happens . . . Despite everyone's supposed quot;brilliancequot; . . . Often what seemed like a killer idea didn't work. Sometimes what seemed stupid worked very well. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #6. Copying success is a cheap/fast way to succeed Novelty isn't the best approach to apps If you're desperate for a win, just copy something that's working Flipside: If your app is doing well, expect imitators. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #7. Metrics do matter, but today's tools are too weak Of course, instrument your apps to track viral aspects No one offers a winning metrics package (yet) -- not even GA Our experience: Students often had to tweak GA and also create their own metrics tools. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #8. You CAN learn to create a winning app Success with FB apps isn't luck or magic Many Stanford teams succeeded Teams who failed at first later created excellent apps (like Oregon Trail) Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #9. Success comes from the Chaos / Control Cycle (This point incorporates many of the previous points) Successful innovation is a process. BJ Fogg's Chaos/Control Cycle Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

BJ Fogg's Chaos/Control Cycle Our process for innovation Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #10. Mass Interpersonal Persuasion is finally here A new form of persuasion emerged in 2007 This is a big deal (nothing as important since radio over 100 years ago) Implications: We can now do things never before possible, like 16 million installs in 10 weeks. But even more significant applications are ahead of use (like world peace). Or . . . You can make lots of money quickly, if that's your goal. Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu

BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu see peace.stanford.edu for more A revolutionary new form of persuasion

10 Million in 10 Weeks What Stanford Learned Building Facebook Apps A Stanford Course during Fall 2007 BJ Fogg, Ph.D. Dan Ackerman-Greenberg Rob Fan Contact: BJ Fogg - bjfogg@stanford.edu