Idea
Own the .com for games people Google: chess.com, sudoku.com, the next one
Shaan lays out the formula for these businesses: a game played by tens or hundreds of millions of people that isn't owned by a brand, paired with the generic top-level domain (sudoku.com loads an instant playable board feeding a mobile app).
“You need a game played by tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people that is not owned by a brand. Chess works. Checkers also works. But the problem with checkers is it's so simple that it's not as like, there's not as much depth to it, therefore not as much of a kind of like money made and passion around the sport. Sudoku was the second one that came to mind. So I went to sudoku.com and sudoku.com, it's just like chess.com.”
Steal thisAcquire the generic .com for a beloved unowned game, make it instantly playable with no signup, and funnel traffic into a monetizable mobile app.
Number
Sudoku maker EasyBrain sold for $640M (plus $125M earnout)
Sam reveals EasyBrain, the company behind the sudoku.com app, was acquired in February 2021 for $640 million in stock plus up to $125 million in additional consideration if it hit targets.
$640M
Acquisition price · USD
“EasyBrain was acquired, uh, last— this most recent February, uh, they were, uh, acquired for $640 million in stock and up to $125 million of additional consideration if they hit it.”
Number
EasyBrain: $210M revenue, $70M profit, 12M daily active users in 2020
Sam shares EasyBrain's actuals: 2020 revenue of $210 million, $70 million in profit, 750 million lifetime installs, and 15 live games with 12 million daily active users.
$210M
Annual revenue (2020) · USD/year
“their revenue is, uh, in 2020 revenues were $210 million. Okay, so you were off there by half. You guessed $400 million, but their profit was $70 million. You guessed $90. Right, pretty good. Um, they've had 750 installs over the course of their— the lifetime of all their— all their things. Other games. They have 15 live games with 12 million daily active users.”