The success of the UK-based high school student, who will also work for Yahoo! at its London base while he continues his studies, has encouraged a legion of small-scale entrepreneurs to create more apps.
Quite difficult, apparently. Most indie developers earn around 1,000 yuan ($161) a month on average. "Unless the app is a big hit in the market, like Summly, it won't bring the riches most people imagine," said Zhang Junming, an independent developer of game apps in Shanghai. Unlike D'Aloisio, whose app summarizes the main points of news stories, few domestic app developers can expect to achieve overnight success. While they are easily able to evaluate the increasing value and opportunities presented by the Chinese market, they also acknowledge that it has specific characteristics, which makes getting rich quick an unlikely scenario.For example, because Chinese consumers are reluctant to pay for apps, Coconut Island's pay products, such as iDragpaper and Mister Frog, are only available overseas.
However, all the apps the company makes available through the Chinese iTunes store are free, and half of Coconut Island's global revenue comes from selling advertising space at the bottom of the interface of free-to-play apps
Big fish, smal pool
Because game companies can't survive on ad revenues for very long, many adopt a second revenue stream, called In-App Purchasing, a practice that has existed almost as long as Internet games have been available.