Google, Facebook Spent Record Amounts On D.C. Lobbying In Q1 2012
More dollars were poured into the Beltway from technology companies in the first quarter of 2012. As shown through previous lobbying spends, each quarter, Facebook and Google continue to spend more and more on lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. In the most recent disclosure reports filed in the U.S. Senate’s lobbying database, both of the companies hit all time highs in terms of lobbying dollars.
Google’s lobbying spend hit an all-time high again this quarter, with spending coming in at a whopping $5.03 million, tripling its spend from the same period a year ago. Last quarter, Google spent $3.76 million on lawmakers. Microsoft only spent $1.8 million on lobbying for the quarter. In 2011, Google spent $9.7 million on lobbying, and has already surpassed half of that spend in this past quarter alone.
So what issues are Google pushing in D.C.? This past quarter, Google’s lobbying strategy focused on SOPA, patent reform, data privacy and accountability, online advertising regulation, intellectual property and trademark issues, cyber security and online privacy, renewable energy, freedom of expression and censorship, immigration reform and the Startup Visa Act, science, technology and math education, free trade, broadband access, freedom of expression and intellectual property in international trade agreements, “openness and competition in the online services market,” cloud computing, tax reform, internet standards of service and more. In fact, this quarter brought the most variety of issues Google has publicly tackled in Washington D.C. so far.
We know Google had been ramping up lobbying spend with the SOPA issues from earlier this year. Antitrust and consumer privacy are also areas where Google has faced scrutiny from the government. And Google recently named former congresswoman Susan Molinari as head of the search giant’s Washington office, signaling a more experienced presence in the Beltway to navigate through many of these regulatory issues.
Ahead of its IPO in May, Facebook has been doubling down on lobbying efforts. The social network spent $650,000 on lobbying in Q1 2012, up from $230,000 in the same quarter last year. From the fourth quarter 2011 to the first quarter 2012, Facebook increased spending by $200,000. Last year alone, Facebook spent a little over $1 million on lobbying and has already spent nearly half of that in the first quarter.
Policy areas of focus for Facebook this year include global regulation of software companies and restrictions on internet access by foreign governments; internet privacy regulations, do not track issues, discussion of location-based services; education regarding Facebook’s tag suggest features, patent reform, online safety measures, education regarding online advertising, immigration, cyber security, and lobbying for Oregon power and water needs to support high-tech growth and investment in Oregon (Facebook opened a new, energy-efficient data center in Oregon last April).
Facebook has faced regulatory scrutiny around privacy, and we know the network must be lobbying hard for patent reform regulation in light of its recent legal issues with Yahoo. And as the company prepares to enter the public markets, Facebook has ramping of fundraising through a new political action committee.
Last year, Facebook is deepened its ties with D.C., and even partnering with the current administration on policy issues.
Photo Credit/Flickr/
This week in social media: Instagram still making headlines, Tumblr & Foursquare look to advertising and more
It’s that time of week again when we take a look at the latest social media news, and highlight some of the biggest and most interesting stories.
Instagram is still stealing headlinesThe Facebook-Instagram acquisition, while almost two weeks old now, has continued to attract attention as more details of the agreement continue to emerge.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Mark Zuckerberg all but concluded the deal himself within the space of three days. Facebook’s board was only informed of the negotiations after they had begun, and while they were not “consulted” they did have the chance to vote on the acquisition.
The report said that board members kept in the loop included COO Sherly Sandberg, and director of corporate development, Amin Zoufonoun, who was involved in the details of the agreement.
Rumour has it that Systrom’s original asking price was $2 billion, but it was split in half before the deal was sealed.
The New York Times took a look at how the deal worked out for one of Instagram’s early investors, Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, which also happens to be an investor in Instagram competitor, PicPlz. The Times’ piece is critical of the firm for backing the wrong horse, describing it first as a fumble, then calling it a bunt.
However, The Next Web’s Robin Wauters views the story in a very different light:
The firm was caught up in a conflict that it didn’t cause, could obviously only continue investing in one of them, acted and backed picplz (which was first to attack the photo sharing space anyway). The startup is now doing different things under the Mixed Media Labs banner, but they may still turn out to be a hit both for the founders and the investors, Andreessen Horowitz included.
Horowitz walks away from the Instagram acquisition with a 400x return on its investment, and its ethical boundaries intact. Seems like a pretty good deal to us.
DealBook also reported on what the Instagram acquisition means for Facebook’s valuation – placing it at $104 billion.
More Instagram news sees the app following in the footsteps of Tumblr and Pinterest by restricting ‘thinspiration’ hashtags and banning self-harm images. Instagram’s newly updated read:
Don’t promote or glorify self-harm: While Instagram is a place where people can share their lives with others through photographs, any account found encouraging or urging users to embrace anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders; or to cut, harm themselves, or commit suicide will result in a disabled account without warning. We believe that communication regarding these behaviors in order to create awareness, come together for support and to facilitate recovery is important, but that Instagram is not the place for active promotion or glorification of self-harm.
Instagram’s popularity has also led to yet another Android malware attack, where quite elaborate but very fake versions of the photo sharing app are sending background SMS messages to earn the attackers some extra revenue.
Foursquare: 20 million users, 2 billion checkins, and an advertising platformFoursquare hit a few milestones this week. The social check-in service now has 20 million users, who have checked in a total of 2 billion times. The site is seeing new signups at a rate of 1 million users per month.
Rumour has it that Foursquare is also venturing into the world of advertising, as it eyes a new monetization platform. AdAge reports that the platform will be launched by mid-June:
The product will let merchants promote a deal to check in at a given area through its existing merchant platform, which allows businesses to claim their Foursquare listings. When users search for local specials, they can see offers via paid ads on Foursquare. Those ads will be targeted using the same algorithms that power “explore,” which recommends establishments based on a users’ past check-ins, as well as those of friends and the wider Foursquare user base.
While brands such as Pepsi, Dunkin’ Donuts and RadioShack have worked with Foursquare in the past, launching a fully-fledged platform will undoubtedly open up new opportunities.
That’s not the only new opportunity on the horizon for Foursquare. BetaBeat reports that, in an effort to get a little more celebrity power on the social network, Foursquare has enlisted United Talent Agency to “advise the start-up on business development and partnerships in the entertainment and media sector” as part of Foursquare’s “overall user acquisition strategy.”
Twitter and Instagram have had no trouble attracting celebrities and musicians alike, but we can imagine that a star-studded line up on Foursquare would be far harder to achieve. After all, what celebrity wants to announce their every move to the public? Hello paparazzi.
On a serious note, however, celebrity Foursquare accounts could easily be used as a marketing tool – with musicians checking in at their concerts for example – and it could add an interesting angle on how fans can interact with their favourite celebrities, beyond Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Tumblr to introduce adsLast week we took a look at some of Tumblr’s monetization plans, consisting mainly of user self-promotion and optimized features for brands.
This week, those plans became more apparent when David Karp spoke at the Ad Age digital conference. Karp began his speech by quoting himself, when in a 2010 interview, he said, “We’re pretty opposed to advertising. It really turns our stomachs.” Times have changed and Karp says that he was probably an “idiot” to make that statement.
Karp officially announced the introduction of ads to Tumblr’s ‘Radar’ posts which appear on the Tumblr dashboard, and receive 120 million impressions per day. As of May 2, users will be able to promote content themselves through the Radar platform.
There are already 15 partnerships in place, including The Cartoon Network, but Karp went to great pains to emphasise the fact that the advertisements would fit right in with Tumblr’s overall aesthetic. He also took a shot or two at advertising tactics used by Facebook, Google and Twitter, saying, there’s ”no 140 characters, [and] no little box” in Tumblr Radar.”
Facebook’s weekend traffic overtakes Google in BrazilFacebook became the most visited site in Brazil. That’s not the most visited social media site, that’s most visited site overall! Yes Facebook bumped Google out of the number one spot, according to reports from Experian Hitwise over the past weekend.
Facebook nudged Google out of the top spot for the first time on April 1st, with its weekend and holiday traffic often seeing a surge, the most recent taking 11% of all Internet visits in the country.
As The Next Web’s Anna Heim pointed out, this is a significant milestone for the social networking site, which has just recently surpassed locally popular Orkut as the most popular social network in Brazil.
Google+ reaches out to emerging marketsGoogle+ has been hard at work trying to cement itself in various markets, by leveraging star power in the Middle East, Japan and beyond. Now Google+ has expanded its SMS features to 41 new countries, having initially offered the service in the US and India alone. The list of countries that join the two is entirely dominated by emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, where SMS continues to be a dominant form of communication:
The complete list is as follows:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo (DRC), Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
The new service allows users to post to the social network via SMS and also enables SMS notifications of activity on their accounts.
➤ Keep up with our weekly updates here, and don’t forget to follow The Next Web’s social media posts on and .
The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms.
Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at: SponsorPay, Agency Sacks and The Affluence Collaborative, W3i, Spruce Media, Rebel Entertainment, Kixeye, Machine Zone, King.com, GameHouse, SpeedDate.com, Kobojo, EA, PT Gaming, Circle of Moms, Warner Brothers, Nuukster, Bally Technologies and SoJo Studios.
- Product Manager Network
- Game Artist
- Senior Producer, Skillgames
- Hadoop Developer/Engineer
- Senior Producer, Social Games
Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Social Games, Inside Facebook and Inside Mobile Apps through regular posts and widgets on the sites. Your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers and executives in the Facebook Platform and social gaming industry today.
Facebook, Google, Twitter could soon be told to set up dedicated servers in India
Facebook could be one of a number of Web firms that will soon be told to introduce local servers in India, as the country’s government seeks to better regulate ‘objectionable content’ on the Internet.
According to a report from Hindustan Times, “the option is already in process” with India’s union law ministry, which is looking into a solution that would see the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google and its video service YouTube asked to set up servers to handle content from the country’s Web space.
A similar move saw BlackBerry maker RIM set up a dedicated India server earlier this year, after more than a year of discussion and pressure.
RIM’s India server allows the government to scan content from its network — but not enterprise services — for security threats, but the a request for Web firms would likely form part of a wider plan to manage unsuitable online content in real-time, a proposal raised last year.
The speculation comes days after comments from a high profile politician suggested that the Indian government is considering a request to make overseas-headquartered firms introduce servers. Now the topic that has been discussed with representatives of the US government, as India looks to escalate its demands.
Home secretary RK Singh raised the issue of removing unsuitable content from Facebook and YouTube with US deputy secretary for homeland security Jane Holl Lute, who visited India as part of ongoing dialogue between the two countries.
The Indian minister is said to have suggested that the US develop a system to catch unsuitable Web content instantly, or within a specific period of time, to help cut down on “mala fide” postings.
While such a request seems optimistic, Singh told Lute that, if the US is unable to address the issue of managing content itself, India could require the Web firms to comply with the server request. However, the US politician’s responses are not known, at this stage.
India’s IT minister Kapil Sibal has previously lamented the inability of India’s legal system to extract information from online firms, and Sibal claimed that a new system would be required to tackle offending content.
Facebook, Google and other Web firms remain subject to a legal case in response to their slow response to removing sensitive content from India’s Web space, and a move to demand the installation of a local server would follow.
Those cases have seen India courts have previously threatened to block Facebook over issues with content in the country, which has since become the world’s second biggest market for Facebook, where it claims to have 50 million users. The company is continuing to push its service there, and it recently added local language support to its feature phone app.
However it remains to be seen how Facebook, Google, Twitter and other companies would respond to the request for a server. The firms have been reluctant to comply with requests to delete content in India. Servers and data security are important issues, and a dangerous precedent of following government requests could be set.
We’ve reached out to representatives of all three companies, and will update this article with any responses that we are given.
Facebook’s Instagram acquisition was all Zuckerberg – The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg basically acted independently when pursuing the company’s latest acquisition of photo app Instagram. The board was “told” that the company would be bought.
Facebook IPO set for mid-May – TechCrunch reports that Facebook’s IPO date is set for May 17; The San Jose Mercury News reports it could be as early as May 14.
Class-action suit seeks refund for Credits purchased by minors – Arizona-resident Glynnis Bohannon filed a class-action suit against Facebook this week. She is seeking a refund after her young son bought Facebook Credits without her consent.
Facebook replacing corporate blogs – A recent survey found that companies are increasingly choosing to create and manage Facebook pages rather than blogs.
Google+ developer to bring hangouts to Facebook - Mohamed Mansour is a Google+ extension developer who plans to enable Google-like hangouts on Facebook allowing multiple people to video chat at once. Mansour became frustrated with Google+ after a redesign broke some of his extensions.
PinView turns Facebook into Pinterest – A new app, PinView, visualizes Facebook Timeline as a Pinterest board.
Facebook Updates Android App: 1.9 Adds Photos, Message Sharing From Home Screen
Facebook has released an to its Android app today that should give users of the social network on Android devices a more integrated and instant experience — and takes Facebook another step closer to making its mobile app experience more like the one people have when using the social network on the web.
Specifically, the new version lets users share photos and messages direct from the home screen of their devices, and it includes several features that had been in the standalone Messenger app.
Facebook for Android 1.9, according to a from Facebook software engineer Frank Qixing Du, also integrates several features that had been in Facebook’s separate Messenger app. These include the ability to see when your friends are online or on their mobile devices; the ability to add people to a group conversation; and a more intelligent contact list, sorting it by the people you interact with most.
After updating the app, camera shortcuts and messaging shortcuts will also appear in your Android app tray, as shortcuts separate from the Facebook app itself:
As before, you will also be able to upload photos, track what your friends are uploading and writing, and look up the phone numbers of your contacts.
So far, the reviews in the Google Play app store have been mixed. On the minus side, several are pointing out that there is now some confusion between Facebook’s Camera and Messenger apps, and those that users would have already had — the native Android apps. Also these new additions take up extra space for now. On the plus side, there’s strong praise for the new design and better Messenger integration.
Check out the reviews and the app itself in .
Facebook filed its first quarter reports with the U.S. Senate today and the numbers indicate that the social site is on pace for another record year, spending $650,000 so far in 2012.
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Facebook today a new set of proposed changes to its terms of service and offered more detailed explanation of its revisions based on user feedback.
, the social network has taken a unique approach with its “Statements of Rights and Responsibilities,” which is what it calls its terms of service. Before instituting any new policies, the company shares proposed changes with users, who then have a period of time to comment and ask questions. In some cases, Facebook even puts issues up to a vote.
Most recently, the company made edits and offered answers to questions related to a draft of a new Statement of Rights and Responsibilities it presented . It clarified the following points, among others.
- Some of our users and a number of journalists mistook the proposed update to our SRR for changes to the way we collect or use data. Our Data Use Policy (which used to be called our privacy policy) governs how we collect and use data. We are not proposing any updates to that document at this time. Instead, we proposed some mostly administrative and clarifying changes (e.g., “profile” to “timeline”) to the SRR.
- Some of you wanted us to explain further why we made a change from prohibiting “hateful” content to “hate speech” in Section 3.7. We think the term “hate speech” better captures our policy on prohibited content, which hasn’t changed. Sometimes discussions on Facebook include controversial content – even content that someone may view as “hateful.” While we allow discussion of controversial ideas, institutions, events, and practices, we do not tolerate hate speech.
- Some users had questions about the addition in Section 5.9 of the language that says that you will not “tag users if you know they do not wish to be tagged.” To be clear, we are not changing how tagging works. This language reflects, and was meant to reinforce, our long-standing principle around tagging – you shouldn’t tag someone that you know ahead of time does not want to be tagged. In response to your comments, we have replaced the original change with new language to highlight how you can provide feedback about tagging.
- We are not creating profiles of non-users. There are lots of instances where we would want a non-user who interacts with Facebook to be subject to our terms. For example, if a third party is on our site but is not a user, they are not permitted to scrape users’ content or information as specified in Section 3.1. Just because someone doesn’t happen to have a Facebook account doesn’t mean they should be free to do whatever they want with the service or our users, and we wanted to make that clear.
- Section 13 is a new addition to our SRR. Many users asked us why we added it. As you know, Facebook is constantly releasing new products. We want to make sure the products you use are the most current versions. We have added this provision to notify you that we may provide upgrades and updates to your downloaded products as they become available.
Users can visit the to review tracked changes to the rights and responsibilities document, and provide feedback in the comments section . The comment period will end April 27 at 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
Facebook Says “Yo Google and Apple, HTML5 Apps Will Suck Until Your Mobile Browsers Improve”
Facebook has revealed that its HTML5 site has twice as many users as its iOS and Android apps combined. But that’s actually a problem, because Apple and Google’s mobile browsers don’t support photo uploads or high-performance animation for HTML5 — features that are crucial to getting Facebook mobile site users sharing more and convincing app developers to port to HTML5 where Facebook can tax payments.
To encourage mobile browser advancement, Facebook formed the , but Apple and Google, the two partners it needs most, have refused to join. Since these oft-rivals to the social network own the dominant mobile browsers Safari and Chrome, Facebook’s efforts may have little impact, HTML5 apps and games will stay inferior, and both Facebook and the end user will miss out.
The audience for great HTML5 apps could be huge. When Facebook stopped reporting the user counts of its iOS and Android apps to AppData, Android had 95 million MAU, iPhone had 105 million MAU, and iPad had 20 million MAU. Given their trajectory they could now have well over 235 million combined monthly active users, and so could its HTML5 site. As of a few months ago, Facebook was driving 120 million visits a month to HTML5 apps. This all means Facebook has a big financial incentive to push the advancement of mobile browser standards.
Facebook doesn’t view its HTML5 app support as a traditional mobile app platform like iOS or Android. Rather it thinks of itself as a social layer that’s integrated into iOS, Android, and HTML5, but that happens to support payments for mobile web apps. The core of Facebook’s business is advertising, but it still makes healthy revenues from the 30% Credits tax on its web game canvas. As more and more gaming shifts to mobile, though, it would help if HTML5 was good enough to support advanced apps that Facebook could then offer viral distribution for and monetize in return.
To fill us in on how it’s trying to jumpstart mobile browser progress, Facebook recently brought several journalists to its headquarters to meet James Pearce, head of mobile developer relations. This year Facebook released the that shows how many of the core capabilities necessary to build HTML5 apps does a browser support. To date, , which includes camera access, DRM, and accelerated canvas for graphics-intensive games.
Safari and Chrome could probably become Ring 1-complete if Apple and Google really wanted them to, but they’re focused on their surprisingly successful native app platforms. Better HTML5 support would also mean developers could port their current iOS and Android apps to HTML5, giving users options beyond the app store where Apple and Google can’t monetize payments.
In hopes of persuading them to juice up their mobile browsers, Facebook created the WC3 community group to galvanize support from app developer, carriers, and OEMs, and the rest of the mobile industry. Mozilla and Opera are on board, but they don’t have enough distribution to make that significant. If Facebook can amass a enough rabble-rousers maybe it can get popular mobile browsers to do comply.
Pearce didn’t address the two other web giants with “Yo”, but he did tell us Apple and “Google [are] the audience for what this community group is producing. Its output is a series of prioritizations about what the browser vendors need to do. It’d be wonderful if in the future we saw Ring 1 browsers. Everyone in the industry has the motivation to see this be successful. We’re not swimming against the tide here. There’s not necessarily a need for us to beat anyone with a stick. They know this needs to happen.”
Apple and Google should put politics aside and the user first, devote more resources to mobile browser development, and bring mobile Safari and Chrome up to snuff. There’s certainly some shortcomings to HTML5, but Apple and Google employ some of the smartest people in the world. Even if it helps Facebook, it’s the right thing to do. Maybe one day an Instagram or even an Infinity Blade could run straight from your mobile browser.
Postscript: Unfortunately, despite their app sales revenue being dwarfed by Apple mobile hardware and Google mobile advertising, these two still have a vested interest in seeing HTML5 lag behind native apps. Don’t expect them to pour money into HTML5 until they absolutely have to.
Someone wrote a whole book dedicated to Facebook’s ? That’s like asking whether there’s a whole blog dedicated to Facebook. Ahem.
Well, there’s plenty of source material for a book in the more than 100 pages of registration documents the social network filed with the at the beginning of February, plus still more paperwork in the form of three amendments, appendices and the pending Instagram acquisition.
The SEC has yet to approve that , which would impact final approval of all the other papers mentioned.
Facebook has pushed the boundaries of what the SEC allows companies to do between the time they submit registration documents and the actual IPO transaction — from holding weekly private auctions after filing registration documents to acquiring a competitor and somehow managing to leak tips to the media anonymously — that we wonder whether a deal could actually happen by , rather than later.
The longer the lead time to , the better the market for an e-book about the deal could be. And this book is about the deal, rather than a story about the company, although that’s part of it too.
The Facebook IPO Primer now in the Kindle format, and will become available through other booksellers in the future.
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Thousands of Facebook applications and third-party sites that utilize the social network’s login capabilities experienced a two-hour outage last night.
An issue with Facebook’s central JavaScript files prevented apps and some aspects of Facebook-connected sites from loading. Although the bug was reported and resolved within two hours, developers might notice a temporary dip in their apps’ usage for Thursday.
A user filed about the JavaScript issue, noting that all Zynga games were down, at 7:41 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Facebook acknowledged the service disruption at 8:30 p.m. on its , and declared the issue resolved at 9:55 p.m.
The incident is a reminder for the many developers that depend on Facebook for login and other features how their businesses can be affected when the platform experiences outages. The social network’s vision is to have all websites and applications integrate its Open Graph, but the more companies do so, the more critical it becomes to keep the platform stable and prevent issues from affecting users and developers globally. These types of disruptions will come under additional scrutiny after Facebook becomes a publicly traded company, as it is expected to this summer.
Thanks to Louis Goddard for the tip.
Woobox has long ranked as one of the most widely used tools for Facebook pages, so we were surprised to learn that the vendor only just joined the ranks of .
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Facebook recently updated its feature phones mobile app to allow users to interact with pages and check into locations, according to posts on the company’s Facebook for Every Phone .
“” is a native mobile app compatible with more than 3,600 different Java-enabled feature phones. Previously, the app included the ability to upload photos, read News Feed, view profiles, check messages, see event invites and take other basic actions with your friends, but it did not support fan pages or check-ins.
Now these users can Like pages, view their friends’ Likes and see posts from pages they Like in their mobile News Feed. They can also share check-ins along with a status. Users cannot yet share photos with location information or tag other users in a check-in. Still, these are powerful features for a large demographic of users who do not have smartphones or — as is the case for many users in developing countries — personal computers.
As of Dec. 31, 2011, Facebook for Every Phone had 39.7 million monthly active users, according to AppData. Facebook no longer provides daily or monthly usage data about its native apps, but it’s worth noting that the has more than 75.9 million Likes. Users are given the option to Like the page when they first log-in using the app, a company spokesperson tells us. Despite only being launched on Jan. 20, Facebook for Every Phone is now the most-Liked page on the site, beating out the general Facebook fan page and pages of popular celebrities, according to our PageData service.
It’s important for Facebook to continue to improve its offerings for feature phones and the mobile web, not just iOS and Android apps. As the social network grows in markets like India and Africa, where users are primarily accessing the site through feature phones, the company needs to continue to offer new features as it has done to increase engagement among desktop and smartphone users. Pages and location sharing are ways for users to interact with entities besides friends. These features are also related to monetization, since they allow Facebook to collect additional data about users’ interests and offline behavior so that it can deliver relevant ads to them in the future.
Facebook initially overhauled its app for feature phones , in partnership with Snaptu. It then acquired the Israeli startup three months later and rebranded the feature phone app as Facebook for Every Phone in . The app included new features, and Facebook made deals with carriers to offer users 90 days of free data access. The app was designed to require less data transfer than mobile sites or Java apps, so low costs likely encouraged users to pay for access after the free trial expired.
A news Timeline application, Younews, topped our list of emerging Facebook apps this week.
We define emerging applications as those that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week. This week’s top apps grew from between 120,000 and 580,000 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook.
Top Gainers This Week
Name MAU Gain Gain,% 1. Younews.in 800,000 +580,000 + 264% 2. 내 상위 통계 이번 주 340,000 +300,000 + 750% 3. Socialcam 860,000 +240,000 + 39% 4. Static HTML… [Eleventh Tab] 540,000 +220,000 + 69% 5. Gangs of Boomtown 670,000 +210,000 + 46% 6. Social Video 920,000 +200,000 + 28% 7. Angry Words (Apalabrados) 570,000 +190,000 + 50% 8. Mynet 650,000 +180,000 + 38% 9. Tab Builder: Document 320,000 +160,000 + 100% 10. Township 880,000 +160,000 + 22% 11. Friend Hug 480,000 +150,000 + 45% 12. Only for Likers 890,000 +140,000 + 19% 13. Zynga Bingo 460,000 +140,000 + 44% 14. Fairy Farm 640,000 +130,000 + 25% 15. Fan Page Tab 14 280,000 +130,000 + 87% 16. I AM PLAYR 860,000 +130,000 + 18% 17. Speed City 330,000 +130,000 + 65% 18. Ustream 630,000 +130,000 + 26% 19. Waze – Drive Social 340,000 +130,000 + 62% 20. Oferece uma rosa 230,000 +120,000 + 109%Younews.in topped our list with 580,000 MAU; the app is basically a news feed on Facebook of popular stories. A Turkish news app, Mynet, also made our list. 내 상위 통계 이번 주 was also very popular application, but essentially publishes Facebook statistics to the feed. There were a series of tab applications, one for documents, another to create a landing page and a few others.
Video applications were popular on our list, too. Socialcam allows users to capture and share videos for mobile devices, Social Video posts interesting videos to users’ feed every day, and Ustream allows users to share live broadcasts online.
Games on our list were led by Gangs of Boomtown. Many of the other games our titles we haven’t seen on our lists before.
Then there was Waze – Drive Social, which provide users weather-related traffic information. Finally, two applications that allow users to share virtual gifts with their friends, or to the stream: Friend Hug and Oferece uma rosa.
All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.
Our series of question-and-answer posts about Facebook’s continues with Justin Kistner, director of social products at Webtrends, discussing the company’s analytics offerings.
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Brand Networks Chief Executive Officer and Founder Jamie Tedford answered our questions about his company joining Facebook’s .
How did Brand Networks enter the program and which of the four areas does Brand Networks have badges in?Brand Networks has been a since 2010, and gained access to the ads application programming interface program in 2011 in order to launch our story amplifier tool — a Facebook ads planning and optimization platform. We also launched our go local publishing and promotions platform for pages in 2011.
As a result of demonstrating our proficiency in these key areas, Brand Networks earned s.
What was the process that Brand Networks went through to get the PMD badges?had to clearly demonstrate unique capabilities that help marketers scale and achieve efficiency, and extend measurably beyond the functionality of Facebook’s native tools. This was a comprehensive and collaborative process with Facebook representatives, enabling them to evaluate our tools, experience, and practices in each of these areas.
How does the PMD change the way Brand Networks will do business?As one of the first 35 companies to join the preferred developer consultant program, we’re keenly aware of both the opportunity and responsibility that comes with this distinction. Now that we’ve extended our capabilities beyond apps, to include ads and pages, we will continue to focus on innovating our software and service offerings in each of these areas. We will also strive to be constructive leaders within the program and active participants in the .
What else would you like to tell our readers about Brand Networks?Soon after launching our business in 2007, we made a bet to focus our efforts on the Facebook platform. From the beginning our solutions were never intended to be a one-size fits all model. Rather, we focus on building custom that address our clients’ business needs and objectives, leverage existing solutions when applicable to help our clients save money and resources.
All of our development is performed in-house, with a team of incredibly talented engineers, designers and social intelligence members located in our Rochester, NY studio. Our marketing, story planning and client services teams, located in Boston, are the , coming from top agencies and brands.
We are proud to have built our company, software and services with no outside funding or investment. This has kept us nimble and agile, always leaning in to hear and address customer needs. All in all, building our business turned out to be a pretty good bet.
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Brand-To-Fan Platform Crowdtap Expands To Facebook & Mobile, Sees Revenue Soar
Crowdtap, a web-based network that allows brands to connect with their most engaged fans and customers through social media, has just expanded to two more platforms: Facebook and mobile. The mobile application comes in the form of which allows fans to participate in the brand’s “challenges” (games and contests) in order to earn rewards.
Meanwhile, the new Facebook tab sets up a special “VIP” section right on the brand’s own Facebook page, to allow for interactions with its top fans.
Since launching at SXSW in 2011, Crowdtap has raised $7 million in funding from the Foundry Group, and now counts among its customers over 60 well-known U.S. brands, including American Express, Old Navy, Sony Pictures, Dreamworks, Verizon Wireless, Microsoft, Pinkberry, and more.
In Q1 of this year, Crowdtap reports it has surpassed its entire revenue from all of 2011. Although the company declined to give hard numbers here, we do know that it had already surpassed $1 million in revenue as of July 2011. They tell us that’s it’s safe to assume that this number was “well surpassed” through the end of the year. And now they’ve made all that and more in just one quarter.
For those unfamiliar, Crowdtap allows a brand to reach out to its influencers from communities they’ve built up on Facebook, Twitter or in CRM databases, as well as reach out to Crowdtap’s member base of 250,000 consumers. In exchange for interactions with the brand, which may entail things like surveys, polls, online discussions or social sharing, the consumers are rewarded through exclusive access to new products and content, or whatever else it is the brand in question wants to offer – freebies, perhaps, or gift cards.
In addition, Crowdtap also supports fans’ favorite charities by allowing them to choose charitable donations instead of cash rewards, and it even goes so far as to require that a set number of a fan’s points are given to a charity.
There’s a “gamified” element to all this, too, as Crowdtap’s members earn points, badges and rewards for their participation.
For the brands and marketers, Crowdtap provides them with an online dashboard that gives them a real-time look into their social communities, helping them see how consumers are interacting and what insights they may have.
One of the first companies to roll out the Crowdtap Facebook tab is Woolite, and several clients are planning to roll out on the mobile app, but Crowdtap is unable to disclose the details at this time, due the the sensitive nature of its discussions with the brands.
This week’s Spring Summit at Facebook headquarters brought about the newly structured preferred . But what does it mean for your brand?
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
is coming to Facebook a few weeks early — for developers, that is.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
It’s been reported in the past that Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg often works a 16-hour day. But, the company’s second-in-command, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, leaves the office at 5:30 p.m. every day.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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