Candy Crush has a very clever business model that all businesses can learn from. In this article I discuss the revenue model, the addictive nature of the game and how we should be getting our customers addicted to us! The small easy amount to spend makes the monetary aspect simple to say 'yes' to and the free game is enough to get you hooked and addicted.

2. Over the years I’ve growled at my then teenage son for the countless hours
I felt he was wasting playing video games. He’d sit for hours devouring the
current level in the hope he would slay the tyrant and rise to the next
challenge. We had many fights over his need to keep playing, especially
when it came to getting him to the dinner table or doing his jobs. I could
never imagine getting so engrossed in such a game and always found they
were
a
massive
time
waster.
Fast forward ten years and my now adult son laughs relentlessly whilst I
scream with glee for having conquered another level of Candy Crush.
Albeit, I’m only up to level 90 out of 540 but I thought I’d give it a crack and
see what all the fuss was about. I was also intrigued at the revenue model
the game is built upon and how it could rope in an insane amount of
money from addicted crushers worldwide.

3. I pulled out my iPad, downloaded the game and started crushing those
suckers as fast as I could. Within a matter of hours, on my lazy Sunday
afternoon, I realised I had not only become hooked, but I’d spent around
$10 on my iTunes account paying for extra lives. I’d researched ‘how to’
videos on how to reach the next level and I even searched for a crack that
would provide me with extra lives without paying for them. Damn; this
game is clever.
Here’s the business model
The game itself is free to download. You can play the game for as long as
you like & get to as many levels as you can for free. But here’s the catch:
When you’re out of lives, you wait a certain amount of time before you get
more lives. If you want to skip a level or gain extra moves to complete your
level, you have to pay. And here is where they make their money. It’s
frustrating having to wait and it drives you nuts when you can’t beat a
level. It’s the addictive nature of the game that is making them the money.

4. According to Mail Online, Candy Crush is the most addictive online game
ever and according to the games developer, www.King.com, the main users
of the game are women aged between 25 and 55. Well, I’m 47 and I’m a
woman; I guess that puts me in their target market.
Chloe Sesta Jacobs, a 25 year old freelance writer from Melbourne says, “I
only started playing a few days ago, but it seems as though it’s completely
taken over my life. The first time I lost all my lives and found out I had to
wait half an hour to get one back I was beside myself. I swore I would never
pay that sneaky 99¢ on your iTunes account to get more lives or to five
more turns in a round, but before I knew it today I ended up spending $11
on this.”

5. And that’s my point exactly. It’s those tiny little spends that accumulate
over a period of time, multiplied by the 500 million downloads of the
game. And according to ‘Think Gaming’, a company that deals with gaming
analytics, it’s making its developers a tidy $875,382 each day.
When considering any kind of revenue distribution model, iTunes has it
licked. The concept of spending as little as 99¢ for a purchase are easy
decisions to make, particularly when you’re looking for a little relief in your
game or you want the song you just heard on the radio.

6. Back to the Candy Crush Saga; it’s a genius business model. The first step is
free. There’s a certain level of usage that’s also free. But, if you want to
play as you want, when you want, you have to pay 99¢. Or you can ask your
friends on Facebook to give you some lives, but you first have to connect
the
game
with
your
Facebook
account.
This, in turn, gives the game free promotion to your Facebook community.
It’s an easy, small spend without too much thought. It ropes you
in, engages your social media community and gets that competitive edge
brewing inside.

7. Things to consider from a business perspective:
1) How can you get your clients addicted to you?
2) Do you have a free entry offer (aka Free Opt In Offer), that gives people
a taste of who you are?
3) Do you have a small ‘buy in’ that’s easy to say yes to?
4) How are you engaging your customers socially to encourage social
sharing and promotion to their friends? Is your content interesting enough
for them to share?
5) What’s your Candy Crush Saga?

8. If you’d like to know more about business and revenue
models go to: www.Ludwina.com. You can book in a half
hour of my time where we can chat about how you can
generate more revenue by creating a Candy Crush model.
One more thing… while you’re on my website, I’ve got over
50 Digital, Social Media and Content Creation Strategies +
Access to our Expansive List of Online Tools and Resources
that you can immediately download for FREE!
Ciao!
Ludwina x