As young Australian entrepreneurs go bust, Kim Kardashian is poised to become an app-millionaire after lending her name to a rebadged fashion app that encourages young girls to spend $99 for virtual dollars.
Reports have emerged that the wife of rapper Kanye West will earn a handsome share of the $200 million annual revenue generated by the app "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood." In the past month, the app developed by listed San Francisco-based Glu-Mobile (whose stock price has since shot up nearly 40 per cent in the past four months) has become the second-most downloaded free-to-play game in the US App Store, and is currently sitting at fifth in the Australia store.
Simply for providing her name for the rebranded "Stardom Hollywood" app, the star of the racy Bound 2 film clip is expected to hit a pay day in the tens of millions.
The app aims to recreate the rags-to-riches experience that saw Kardashian and her sisters catapulted into the celebrity stratosphere. Your "kustomized" avatar must demonstrate they're cool enough to hang out with Kardashian by modelling, giving her free designer dresses (jeopardising your livelihood), and turning down suspicious hangers-on seeking to trade off your newfound fame.
While it's free to play and try to make your mark on Kardashian's Hollywood, the game is still bound by the laws of the real world as player's efforts can be hobbled by their energy levels and access to cash. But she has an answer to that, too, teaching fans money can solve problems. Players can use real money to purchase the virtual currency "K coins" in order to hasten their climb up the social ladder.
This way, Kardashian's horde of fans are directly lining her pockets with millions.
Dale Carr, CEO of Leadbolt, said more celebrities will jump on board this cash wagon.
"Kim's voice guides users through the game and encourages them to spend up to $99 in exchange for virtual dollars to dress their avatar," Carr said. "With Kim's success, watch out for new apps with other global stars like LeBron James, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, One Direction, Justin Bieber and David Beckham."
Kardashian's success comes as young Australian female entrepreneur Nikki Durkin recently shuttered her site 99dresses because she ran out of cash. After a four-year journey that saw her travel from the NSW country town Berry to San Francisco and New York and raise $US595,000, she couldn't convince investors to fund her popular concept. She was forced to remove her app from Apple's store on July 8.
"I've survived being stabbed in the back by co-founders, investment rounds falling through, massive technology f---ups that brought sales to a halt, [US] visa problems, lack of money, lack of traction, lack of a team, hiring the wrong people, firing people I didn't want to fire, lack of product-market fit, and everything else in between," Ms Durkin wrote on a popular blog post that was viewed more than 150,000 times.
"You rarely hear the raw stories of start-ups that persevered but ultimately failed - the emotional roller coaster of the founders, and why their start-ups didn't work out."
