According to its Facebook profile "Scrabulous is a cool application," one that lets you "invite your friends" to play and is "the best word game!" After listening to the game's co-creator Jayant Agarwalla speak on his brainchild for an hour, it became apparent that this succinct, yet hyperbolic statement may in fact be very true.

The little application game that could, developed by Indian brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, now boasts more than 3.2 million registered users on Facebook and more than 700,000 games in play on any given day. To put this in perspective, Scrabulous has more players than the Greater Vancouver area has inhabitants. And it's amassed this following in just nine short months. Whoa!

For the uninitiated, Scrabulous is a popular Facebook (and web-based) gaming application that's derived from the age-old board game Scrabble. It's simple to use, but challenging to master.

Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development for Scrabulous, Jayant Agarwalla, was in Toronto on Friday to participate in a case study on his invention at the 2008 Interactive Content Exchange. Agarwalla explained to the audience of digital content stakeholders why he believes his application might be spreading like wildfire.

"Scrabulous is a nice addiction, it keeps your brain ticking," he said in response to a jovial question from interviewer Jay Goldman, Radiant Core president, about whether the co-creator feels like a productivity-draining drug pusher.

The birth of cool

Scrabulous, which got its name "over a few coffees," was borne of humble beginnings. After graduating high school in 2005 the brothers developed the now-defunct Bingo Binge, an online destination they created when their favourite board game-based site transformed to pay-for-play.

"My weekly allowance was $8 a week ... and I preferred chocolate, so we developed Bingo Binge," Agarwalla joked.

But this comment actually speaks volumes about the genesis of success among many new entrepreneurs: They develop a solution to a gap in the marketplace based on something they are passionate about in their own lives. Scrabulous is really no different.

"I used to play a lot of board games growing up in India. When my cousins would come over we'd play Pictionary and Scrabble," said Agarwalla. "My brother and I developed Bingo Binge, but after some issues in 2005 with server downtime we rebranded the site as Scrabulous."

A slow start

Its Facebook beginnings in June of 2007 were quite underwhelming actually, Agarwalla revealed.

"When we launched on Facebook we saw that the average game application had about 20-25,000 users, so after a few weeks we only had about 10,000; we were a little disappointed."

The story doesn't end there, though. By the end of September 2007, it had hit a million registered users. Though the brothers have "not spent a single dollar on marketing or advertising," said Agarwalla, the application is raking in the dollars.

"We're making about $20,000 a month by selling advertising above and below the board, using Google AdSense and other ad networks ... we work on a revenue-sharing clicks basis."

The rest is Facebook history.

A Scrabulous connection

While much to-do is made of the notion that the online gaming world intensifies the distance between true human contact and interaction, Scrabulous has actually helped bring people together.

"We've already helped facilitate one marriage ... we had a request from a user to program a special board that read 'Will you marry me, Jane?' so that when she opened the game it would read the question. It came with a yes or no option on her end. We're both solving and ruining marriage," joked Agarwalla.

While the company has not yet dove into the advertising pool, Agarwalla speaks like a business school professor of consumer-centric marketing 101:

"Don't build an application that you think might be successful; build one that you know will be successful ...and don't forget the double bottom line ... when you build something that helps the community and makes money, you've got a winning project."

And that pesky little kerfuffle with Hasbro/Mattel over intellectual property rights?

Agarwalla said he could not comment about specifics, but did confirm that they are "working towards an amicable resolution ... one that will keep users happy."

Agarwalla, it is worth noting, was his high school's reigning chess champ for eight years straight, so it is safe to say he is both an analytical genius and a proven winner.

The profound success of Scrabulous should come as no surprise.

Some parting wisdom on besting your Scrabulous opponents:

• "Learn all the two-letter words, they will help you out when you're in a bind"
• "Keep some I R E N T S letters and you'll always hit BINGO in a few moves"
• "Don't give up, things can turn around at any time."