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You, being the erudite, technologically-savvy UC Berkeley student you are, already knew that every time you take that “How good a lover are you?” quiz survey on Facebook, you’re actually contributing to the generation of tens of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue on the net. But did you know that some of that money may be going to the bespectacled, weedy computer science major who’s just gotten onto the 52L, lurched down the aisle, and unloaded the several tons worth of textbooks strapped to his back onto the row of plastic blue seats across from you? Yeah. We didn’t, either.
Ankur Nagpal, who interviewed with BusinessWeek last week, is that man. Boy. 19-year-old. In between classes, the guy develops widgets–facebook widgets. The Clog would like to observe that widget is such a cute word for such a terror-mongering, profile-cluttering, headache-inducing, “Goddamn stop sending me those Oregon Trail invitations before I drown you with your @&(*#*!* oxen” spam magnet. This does not include the Lolcats application–we’ll always love us some Lolcats applications.
Oh, yeah–where were we? After fighting off Mojo Jojo’s agents of evil and beating out Muhammad Yunus by singlehandedly bringing about an end to world hunger, Nagpal goes on to sell his widgets to networks like Social Media Networks for anywhere between a couple hundred dollars to $40,000. Developer Analytics, a web analysis company, rates Nagpul as one of the top 20 Facebook developers. Beep! The Clog will be back after this message–after we collect our jaws from the floor.
To be fair, it’s not like the guy isn’t qualified–as a freshman, he interned with Amazon.com, for Christ’s sake. There was a learning curve, too. Most people don’t immediately strike the gold vein from which all riches flow eternal; in fact, most don’t strike it at all. At first, Nagpal developed two or three applications and sold them each for small sums of money. But then he hit pay dirt when he developed his first personality quiz, “How good a lover are you?”
Two weeks and 400,000 registered users later, Nagpal’s fortunes were made.
And he’s not selfish, either. His roommates supply him with questions, answers and ideas. In return, he’s shared tens of thousands of dollars in profit with them.
So next time you crave to know “What color are you?” think of Ankur Nagpal, and take that quiz. Take it several times. After all, you are helping a fellow student pay for college.
A Widget Mogul in Between Classes [BusinessWeek]
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