Mobile App Revenue Arbitrage

A mobile app monetization strategy focused on arbitrage between user acquisition costs and revenue generation, particularly in casino and gaming apps. The insight comes from seeing the economics of successful mobile apps while working at AppLovin.

Key Points:

• User Acquisition Economics:

  • Cost: $8 to acquire a male user (18-35) in the US
  • Revenue: $20+ per user within 7 days
  • Net Profit: ~3x return on investment within a week

• Key Success Examples:

  • Casino gaming apps showing massive profitability
  • Candy Crush described as a "money printing machine"
  • Weather apps generating 200M impressions per day

• Business Model:

  • Acquire users through targeted advertising
  • Monetize through in-app purchases and advertising
  • Scale by reinvesting profits into user acquisition
  • Create a repeatable cycle: spend money to acquire users, generate more money back

• Market Insight:

  • Many apps have unexpectedly large scale
  • Simple apps (like weather) can generate massive impression volumes
  • Gaming apps particularly effective at monetization

The core opportunity is creating a "machine" where you can predictably put in money and get multiples back through efficient user acquisition and monetization.