What Is a Whale Customer?

Shaan Puri says a whale customer is the small set of people who spend thousands of dollars a year, and that sliver drives a shocking share of the revenue in collector businesses and in ordinary businesses too.

Candy Crush has millions and millions of players, but 80 to 90 percent of the revenue comes from those heavy spenders. They make up for the free players and for the players who pay $2.99 to remove ads. The same pattern shows up in video games, Pokemon card collecting, and marketplaces. At Twitch, whale viewers subscribe to tons of channels and spend like someone buying a bottle at a club. Gifting subscriptions let a viewer give away 200 subscriptions to random people in a chat, about $1,000 at $5 a month. The streamer shouted the buyer out. Revenue per channel jumped because those customers were ready to spend more and only needed a new way to spend. He thinks the average subscription ran about five or six dollars a month.

Giving whale customers new ways to spend holds for luxury products. Gambling products also depend on people with disposable income and a certain level of addiction, and that group becomes an incredibly lucrative customer.