Facebook app Bitstrips: More than 30M avatars and counting

You may have noticed your Facebook News Feed looking more animated lately. A popular Facebook app — Bitstrips — is taking the News Feed by storm, as the company revealed to sister site Inside Mobile Apps that there have been 30 million comic avatars created so far, many of whom are colorful representations of Facebook users.
According to AppData, Bitstrips is now the fourth-most popular Facebook app, in terms of monthly active user estimates, behind three King games (Candy Crus

h Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga).

But how has the app grown in popularity? Bitstrips Co-Founder and CEO Jacob Blackstock discussed this with Inside Mobile Apps editor Jon Robinson:

It feels like we transformed the Internet into a comic strip. The numbers we’re releasing really blew us away. We expected it to grow, but the daily reality blew away our monthly projections.
I think one of the reasons it’s really taken off is that comics are universally loved. Even if you’re not into comic books, you’re into the Sunday Funnies.

Blackstock described how what seems like an overnight success is really the culmination of seven years of hard work. However, the app really took off in late October, as this MAU estimate chart from AppData shows: