Secrets of iFunny Top Application Success

On April 6, at Mediametrics.ru studio, Ruslan Kuvaev, founder and CEO of BYYD mobile advertising platform, conducted an interview with Denis Litvinov, FunCorp Business Development Director.

It was about the secret of success of the famous iFunny project, the main tools and promotion channels, as well as the reasons for its popularity among users. Talk abstracts are in our current issue.

FunCorp company history, the idea of ​​creating an iFunny application

The story dates back to the appearance of top-end mobile devices. It is believed that the company started in 2004, and the focus was immediately on mobile, which is very unusual for Western and Russian projects. A fairly popular flagship product of SMS Box was “sharpened" for Java-phones and distributed throughout the CIS. Initially, it was an archive of SMS jokes that could be sent to friends. When smartphones appeared, they rolled out the first mobile applications.

How long did it take to develop the application? What difficulties did you encounter?

It all started with the application AyDaPrikol :) (in Russia now it has several hundred thousand active users), for the creation of which in 2011 we spent a month. After a couple of weeks, iFunny adapted to English and “rolled out” to the American AppStore. The total development period is 1.5 months.

How does application technology work, what are the sources of content? Who is involved in content moderation and application updating?

Our content is fully user-generated. We ourselves do not create anything - everything is brought by our users. There is a special department of customs that deals with screening of low-quality content. The editorial department creates issues.

What was the reason for the orientation of the application to the US market?

The highest achievement for an IT company is to capture the US market. This is the richest and most “understandable” market in the world. American inventory is very valuable. Even today, there are two markets - the American one and everyone else, and there are two development options: either you have all the equipment in the USA, or your equipment is “spread out” around the world. It is logical that buying a little bit of equipment in each country is inconvenient.

The second reason is that the American market is quite “understandable”. User behavior in Russia and the US is similar. Asian countries are generally an alternative world, developing in its own specific vector, which is difficult to enter. Therefore, the choice fell on the United States.

An example of iFunny as an application that has been successful in entering a foreign market. What difficulties did you encounter when entering the market?

The first 1.5 years, the main problem was community management, because at the time of the release of the service, none of the employees and founders had ever been to the United States. Initially, the need of users for content was formed by one editor from Penza (then American moderation appeared). Often there were misunderstandings of users.

“Due to the fact that at the initial stage irrelevant content appeared or there were some“ drops ”of the service, users concluded that the application is made by monkeys - now on our logo a monkey is like self-irony.”


The main components of PR and the marketing strategy of FunCorp We have

no PR strategy, we do not deal with it at all. All our focus is on the community and on the product - we are building the community and constantly improving the product.

Milestones in the history of the application since its creation iFunny

Initially, it was a regular viewer. The most important decision in promoting the project is to create a community: comments, shares - a kind of competitive environment for users. This gave the project virality, ensured growth.

Differences in approaches to promotion in Russia and abroad

The approach is one and the same. The difference is in user behavior. In the USA, competition is for technology, in Russia - for the right to be the first. In the US, things are changing fast enough. For example, on Facebook you need to change banners daily. In Russia, everything works as standard.

The proportion of the distribution of the audience in Russia and the United States. Trends and forecasts for the development of the Russian mobile market and applications.

IFunny in Russia has less than 0.3% of customers in Russia, the rest in the USA. The application iDaPrikol :) is 5-7 percentage points from iFunny in the audience.

Prospects for the development of fun applications and their content The

content in fun applications is “eternal”, so it is necessary to focus on the development of technologies and distribution channels.

See a more detailed version of the interview on our YouTube channel:





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