Rounding out the top three is Chrissy Teigen, 31, who joins the list for the first time after raking in $13.5 million over the past 12 month-period.
TextPride was a fine business, but a tiny one. Meanwhile, the market for messaging apps was exploding. Facebook FB 0.61% bought WhatsApp for $19 billion; that service now has 700 million monthly active users. Tango, an app with 250 million registered users, is worth $1.5 billion. Kik has 200 million registered users. Snapchat, worth $10 billion, has 100 million users. A new study, commissioned by Kik, shows that U.S. users now spend more time on average in messaging apps than they do on social networking apps. The only problem? These messaging apps need ways to make money, and there’s no reasonable way for advertisers to wedge themselves into conversations between friends.
At its own auction the following evening, Sotheby’s achieved a far more respectable total of 22.6 million with fees, although it was just above the low estimate of 21.8 million based on hammer prices. Of the 44 lots offered, 15 did not sell, or 34 percent.
ICBC said net profits increased 0.5 per cent for the year to December 31 2015 — the smallest increase since it listed. Returns on average total assets declined 0.1 percentage points to 1.30 per cent.