srtOnlineMedia.com

It looks like 9GAG is a little late to the party on Google Play. App developer Jan Grewe of Berlin, Germany has sold two pocket-sized versions of the meme site for a total of $25,000 to an anonymous entrepreneur on the mobile acquisition marketplace Apptopia.

With 855,000 downloads and 36,200 ratings that average 4.5 stars, the free version has already outperformed 9GAG’s official app for iPhone and iPod Touch. 9GAG+, a paid version of the app that sells for $0.99, has been downloaded more than 10,000 times, with an average of 4.5 stars out of 1,700 ratings. By comparison, 9GAG’s free iOS app has only racked up a total of 2,634 ratings and an average of 4.5 stars since it first launched in July.

Apptopia’s Chelsea Tharp said that the 9GAG app was the site’s biggest acquisition to date, closing on September 27, 2012 at $25,000. An app’s value on the marketplace depends on a number of factors, like the quality of the design, the number of active users, the amount of revenue it generates (if any), and the app’s ranking in the app stores. In the end, few of the apps sell for more than $10,000.

The entrepreneur who bought the 9GAG apps is not a developer himself; he just saw the purchase “as an investment opportunity,” said Tharp. He did not wish to disclose his name.

Eliran Sapir and Jonathan Kay founded Apptopia in November 2011, launching the site in April 2012. Since then, the company has facilitated the sale of 85 apps and raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by Mark Cuban. Said Tharp, “We’ve put a lot of money back into the app development community.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.