LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 27: (L-R) TV personalities Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian watch the … [+]
In today’s world, if one is lucky enough to amass millions of followers or fans, it’s hard not to think of the millions they can help create in revenue.The potential for monetization has been made clear by social media sites and yet, sometimes, what traditional social media has to offer doesn’t seem like enough. That’s where the Kardashians found themselves just shy of a decade ago. They figured that if they could get their “followers” to follow them to their own app, they could charge the followers and convert their follower count into a dollar count. The Kardashians’ logic was sound, and their path is one that’s tempting to follow, however it ended in failure. How did their seemingly bright idea of solo-apps fade? Why hasn’t this become the model for all social media stars?
Content is Queen
Kim Kardashian West made her App Store debut with a game, “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” which may have grossed the star and development partner $200 million in annual revenue. The game was free-to-play but players could purchase in-game currency, “K-stars,” to buy in-game items, like special wardrobe items and furniture. That seemed to pave the way for individual Kardashian sister apps, and in 2015, the whole family got involved.
Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner each launched their own subscription apps, all of which shot up into the App Store’s top charts. There was no charge for each of the Kardashian-Jenner apps, but they all offered additional content to subscribers who paid $2.99 per month.
The difference between Kim’s initial launch and the subsequent solo apps was that a game has very clear content and an experience that can’t be found anywhere else. However the sister’s solo apps largely shared content that was being offered for free elsewhere—namely on Instagram. This difference was significant: Kim’s game lasted for nearly a decade, whereas the solo apps died within three years. With the rise of social media, consumers are used to obtaining content for free, making monetization even more difficult. Requiring an audience to move to another platform necessitates that celebrities and creators provide a deeper level of access to exclusive content.
Value is Vital
The importance of ample, quality content in the success of a content creator’s standalone app is made quite apparent by one of the few solo apps that’s still standing: Martha Stewart TV. Martha Stewart has created seasons of beloved television shows and, as she said when the app launched, “Wherever I go, I am always asked where these classic television shows can be found – everyone misses them.” At launch, her app made over 750 episodes available to an audience that had been wanting them; it added value to her fans’ experience. By contrast, the Kardashian-Jenner apps offered content that could be found elsewhere. As Vox put it, rather bitingly, “Can you think of a time when you didn’t have easy access to healthy living and motherhood tips from Kourtney Kardashian? Or workout tips and product recommendations from Khloé Kardashian? Or Kylie Jenner’s personal music preferences?”
Safety in Numbers
While the promise of having one’s own app seems desirable for purposes of hoarding all the possible revenue, there are also problems with being the only celeb on an app. Taylor Swift experienced this pitfall. Her short-lived app The Swift Life, which debuted at #1 in the App Store in 2017, fell to 56th place by day three and plummeted to 793rd in its second week, mainly because its content moderation system couldn’t handle all the racist and homophobic users who seem to have embraced the dedicated app as the perfect place to air all their fury. And Swift wasn’t the only one whose app faced this fate. Jeremy Renner’s app came and went in about six months thanks to the community on the app being unbelievably toxic. But this isn’t the only reason it’s beneficial to be on an app with others. Marketing costs can skyrocket when trying to get fans to download a specific program. They already have so many other apps in the palm of their hand—Instagram, TikTok, et al.—it’s often more cost-effective to distribute content on a shared platform, assuming one can capture the fans’ attention there. Platforms like Patreon, OnlyFans, Substack and Fireside exist to help celebrities and creators maintain control by owning and monetizing their content, while simultaneously providing the same ‘safety in numbers.’ Fans also still have the benefit of accessing all of their content in one place without needing to download additional applications.
Back to Basics
While it’s understandable that the Kardashian-Jenners liked the idea of being a big fish in a small pond—so small that they were the only fish, and it seemed sensible that they might be able to convert their followers to subscribers of their solo app, time has shown that there’s been little to lose for sticking with a shared platform. Every single one of the Kardashian-Jenner sisters has more than doubled their Instagram follower count in the past six years and, as of July 2024, Kourtney has 222 million followers, Kim has 362 million followers, Kylie has 398 million followers, Kendal has 292 million followers and Khloe has 308 million followers. Given that Kylie makes $847,544 per sponsored Instagram post and no longer has any of the costs of keeping up a solo app, she clearly demonstrates that there’s plenty of reason to enjoy being an influencer fish in a big social media pond.
