The world of app revenue is murky to say the least, as you would expect, businesses don’t want to reveal revenue as they don’t want other’s to cash in.
However at some point one of the successful businesses was going to come up for sale and one of the biggest names iFart is up for sale.
The creators of the iFart Mobile app have had enough – and so have we – and after two years of “hard work” they’re placing the number one iTunes App Store application, associated website and all rights to the brand on eBay in a first-of-its-kind auction.
Initially released in the App Store in December 2008, iFart became an instant hit, shooting to the number one spot. Stories of its great success became international headlines in tech blogs and mainstream news.
Now, the entire iFart intellectual property, including the iPhone and iPad application, all raw code, graphic design, website and proprietary technology is up for bid at eBay.
“iFart has been an unlikely success story that continues to pay dividends,” said Joel Comm, creator of iFart and CEO of Digital Future, Inc. “After more than two years of success, my company is focusing on our performance marketing agency. It is time to pass the iFart baton to a company or individual that desires to take it to the next level. This auction will provide the right buyer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of iPhone history.”
Among the other impacts created by iFart was the subsequent release of nearly two hundred copycat novelty apps released in the App Store. Apple has since stopped approving apps in this category, but iFart remains a crowd-pleaser, consistently remaining in the top 100 of the App Store entertainment category for the duration of its existence.
The figures are interesting, it’s peak day was 25/12/2008 when it did 40,000 sales in one day at $0.99 – it launched 12/12/2008. To date, there have been almost 700,000 iFart units purchased $0.99. Apple keeps 30% of the gross, which means they have earned close to $470,000 from the app itself. The Movie Fart pack has sold ~ 14000 units, which netted them $10,200. And the Food fart pack has sold 15,000 units, at a net of $10,300. Which means they have made about $500,000, which top be honest is a lot but it’s not that much considering the publicity it has garnered, it looks from the graph below like much of the revenue was back in 2008-9, and 2010 – when the 200+ copycat apps jumped in – was quite a lean year.
The iFart auction page at eBay features full description of the intellectual property that is up for sale. The reserve is currently set at 2.5 time earnings with a buy-it-now price set to $1,000,000. The auction is set to end on March 11, 2011.
if you want it go to the auction page, but as they say it’s not really the profits they’re selling it’s the brand, which roughly translates as “we’ve squeezed this as much as we can and there’s not a lot left but the name.”
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