RockYou’s Money Making Plan For Facebook Apps: Classified Car Ads

Most of the big Facebook app developers are still trying to figure out how to leverage their large user bases into actual revenue. But RockYou, by most counts the second-biggest app-maker on the site (SuperWall, et al) thinks they have the puzzle solved. They're going to get in to various advertising verticals, starting with car ads.

RockYou is going to start serving auto ads on Facebook in the next few months, CEO and co-founder Lance Tokuda tells us. He was scant on details, but what we do know is that RockYou will use its current car-themed apps, like SpeedRacing, to promote classified car ads. We also know that RockYou is looking to strike deals with major Web companies that are already running car ads, so they can jump-start their inventory.

That's admittedly a vague outline of a plan right now, so we'll need to hear more before we can get a handle on it. But we can see a couple of issues right off the bat:

• We don't quite understand the connection between RockYou's users and car-buyers. Would someone who's playing a Facebook racing game be more likely to be in the market for a new ride than someone who's, say, tossing sheep? Maybe. But we think car sellers can probably find more targeted ad opportunities.
  
• Let's say RockYou does have a good line on car-buyers. How will it convince them to shop at its auto marketplace, as opposed to the many existing options (Cars.com, Craigslist, their local paper, etc.) they already have?

That said, we've heard encouraging noises from app-makers about the oppportunity for advertising on focused verticals, so maybe Lance really has figured something out here. His investors, who've made a big bet on him recently, certainly hope that's the case.

See Also:
Facebook Apps Users: Worth 12x More Than Last Year
App-Maker RockYou: We're Not Done With Facebook (And We May Be Raising More Money)