100K for even a few months would give most people a lot of room to find another hit.

The $100K is revenue, not profits. There are a lot of payouts that come out of the $100K.

Revenue of $100K is a lot less interesting if most of it is going towards iTunes gift certificates to convince people to continue using the application. Is this business at least profitable?

I found that user retention only went up marginally when the rewards were added. The main advantages are that is provides a good hook and a near-term business model.

And to answer your question: Yes, very much so. And growing.

Just curious to see, just how profitable are you? Are you saying you launched the app without rewards at first and were making money from day 1? If so that's impressive.

Unfortunately, "solid business" and "getting acquired" are probably inversely correlated these days. Is Twitter a solid business?

Has Twitter been acquired?

edit: This must be misunderstood. My intent was to illustrate that Twitter is not a good example of a company that has been acquired without a solid business model. Obviously the news says they've had offers, but just as obviously no offers have turned into acquisitions. The many intelligent people who work there and have invested in the company think Twitter has at least the promise of a solid business.

Regarding your edit, you said it yourself. Here's a company that has had multiple acquisition offers, a company which people would consider a bargain at a billion, and the best it can do towards a business model is "at least have the promise of a solid business".

If I had a business that generated even 30k/yr in revenue (albeit a sustainable 30k), I would think really hard before selling it. It pays my living expenses, after all, and ostensibly leaves me free enough to pursue other ideas.

This "acquisition fever" we have these days isn't really about good business models, there are the businesses which try to grow as fast as possible by burning investor money and disregarding business models (the ones that are good acquisition targets), and the businesses that start out with a good business model and aim to be sustainable as fast as possible.

Its had offers.

Hey now, dickbars are a solid business model!

C'mon! There are far better things than getting acquired! Like positive cash flow and happy customers. (Making a general statement here, if you can't tell)