You might think talking to an animated cat is a waste of time, but you'd be disagreeing with 120 million people. Cyprus-based startup Outfit7 has built a business -- 19 mobile and tablet apps -- out of exactly that. Its Talking Friends series of apps, in which animals repeat what you say, have been downloaded 500 million times in 26 months. Outfit7 has more than 120 million active users, 30 per cent of whom have downloaded two or more apps. With no outside investment, the firm has set up offices in California, London, Slovenia and Seoul.
"When we founded the company in early 2010, the goal was to make a mobile game for pure entertainment," says Narry Singh, Outfit7's "chief business guru". So they launched Talking Tom, an animated talking cat, which is now one of 18 different versions. The apps allow users to feed the animals, play games and watch videos featuring the characters. The company collects vast amounts of data from users: "Talking Tom was fed 1.7 billion virtual glasses of milk [in 2011] by users," says Singh, 44.
By: Madhumita Venkataramanan, Edited by: David Cornish
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via Wired.co.uk
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/01/start/how-talking-tom-built-an-empire
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