By Monica Alleven
If you've watched any part of the World Cup, you've heard the horns. They sound like millions of bees buzzing. And if you're Dutch app developer moblio.nl, that sound is music to your ears, especially when it comes from your app on a smartphone.
Founders Lyan van Furth and Jeroen Retrae started working on their vuvuzela app more than a year ago after hearing about the horn and the prospect that it might be banned before the games. They didn't have access to a vuvuzela in Holland, so they imported one from South Africa. They used it to record the real deal, and flash forward months later and some tweaks, and Vuvuzela 2010 is the No. 1 free app, downloaded more than 3.5 million times around the world.
van Furth says he can't disclose how much the company is making through advertisements in the app, but AdMob's head of marketing for EMEA, Matt Brocklehurst, gave a shout out to the app in a blog post yesterday, saying the Dutch company is now earning several tens of thousands dollars per week via its share of advertising revenue. Van Furth doesn't dispute that, and from the smile on his face that comes through on a phone call, that's probably in the ball park. (Or is that smile because The Netherlands just scored another goal?)
Exposure from the popular app has led to more business for the company and they're fielding calls from clients and prospects all over the world, but van Furth says the vuvuzela app didn’t start with money in mind. "It was never about the money for us," he says. But mobile ad network AdMob (now owned by Google) has been a good partner and his company is staying loyal to it. The people there are easy to talk to, and even though it's not a family-owned company, it feels like one, he says.
The app works with Android devices and the iPhone and iPad, but those are the only platforms, and the developer figures there's no reason to add more since the World Cup ends July 11. Other vuvuzela apps also are available from other developers.
moblio.nl's success is all well and good and is a shining example of how a developer can make money with a free app. But isn't the sound just a little bit irritating? Well, maybe, to some. "People want to make noise, that's the whole soccer experience," van Furth says, explaining that the Dutch are so committed to their soccer that streets are deserted during game time. And, he adds, it plays even louder on his iPad.