Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- BigDates Solutions’ Birthday Calendar Gets a Strategic Partner: American Greetings
- Majority of DST’s Stakes in Facebook, Zynga Remain Private, Despite Mail.ru IPO
- Plastic Jungle Lets Users Instantly Convert Gift Cards Into PayPal Funds or Facebook Credits
- Best Buy, Walmart Follow Target as Distributor of Pre-Paid Facebook Credits Gift Cards
- PayPal Introduces More Frictionless Virtual Goods Payment System, Facebook Included
- Top 20 Gaining Facebook Pages: Zynga, SpongeBob, MTV, Disney and Music
| BigDates Solutions’ Birthday Calendar Gets a Strategic Partner: American Greetings Posted: 26 Oct 2010 04:42 PM PDT While social games have dominated the Facebook platform, the birthday calendar niche has continued to do well. An app with that exact name — Birthday Calendar — from BigDates Solutions, currently has a respectable 8.85 million monthly active user count, with 368,00 daily actives, according to AppData. It also has a new strategic partner, in the form of the giant greeting card and toy maker, American Greetings.
In the calendar app niche, psuedo-rival Hallmark Social Calendar already has a strategic partner and investor: as the name suggests, Hallmark. Those companies inked the funding, co-branding and content deal nearly a year ago, and Hallmark has since introduced its own content to the app. The plan appears to be similar for BigDates Solutions, a company with a variety of other email marketing services as well as an iPhone version of the app. We were tipped off about the deal, because at least some of the app’s emails and the email domain are being hosted by American Greetings. After we followed up, a BigDates Solutions spokesperson informed us that while it has not sold the app itself, it has signed a strategic agreement with American Greetings, and the two companies will cooperate on the next iteration of the app, with greeting card maker including its content. Look for it in December. While calendar reminder apps of this sort have been around for years, and have for many people in the industry slipped under the radar, this deal goes to show that real value has been created, that traditional brands are adapting to take advantage of. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Majority of DST’s Stakes in Facebook, Zynga Remain Private, Despite Mail.ru IPO Posted: 26 Oct 2010 03:42 PM PDT
“We just renamed the Russian operations of DST into Mail.ru Group and that is the business that is now going public. It has some small stakes in international for legacy reasons,” said DST partner Alexander Tamas. “DST Global will not go public and continue to make investments into global Internet companies going forward.” While Mail.ru says it has a 2.38 interest in Facebook, DST-Global is the entity that owns the remaining part of the firm’s estimated 10 percent stake in the social network. DST is an investment firm run out of Moscow and London that has bought stakes in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon over the past two years often without demanding many of the trappings late-stage investors traditionally ask for like board seats or liquidation preferences. VTB Capital, one of the firms running the books on Mail.ru’s IPO, says the company’s holdings in Facebook make up about $720 million of the company’s $5 to $5.4 billion valuation, according to a report in Moscow-based business newspaper Kommersant. The Zynga stake is valued at $74 million. That would imply a valuation of $30.3 billion for Facebook and $5 billion for Zynga. VTB based its valuations on trades earlier this year in the over-the-counter market. Most of Mail.ru’s value comes from its Russian Internet properties, including the country’s two biggest Russian language social networks, Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir, along with its IM clients, ICQ and Agent. It also has minority holdings in Qiwi and vKontakte, which it is using the initial public offering to buy an extra 7.5 percent stake in. Bloomberg reported earlier today that Mail.ru received bids for all of the shares it offered. The final price for the stock should be set during the first week of November. Shares are currently being offered at between $23.70 to $27.70 each. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plastic Jungle Lets Users Instantly Convert Gift Cards Into PayPal Funds or Facebook Credits Posted: 26 Oct 2010 02:13 PM PDT Plastic Jungle, a gift card exchange where consumers trade in unused gift cards for cash, e-commerce store credit, or Facebook Credits, today launches a partnership with PayPal allowing users to fund their PayPal account by selling gift cards to Plastic Jungle. The exchange is also transitioning to an all digital transaction system where users can redeem their cards online instead of physically mailing them in. This digital system will go live on the Facebook app in a few weeks, allowing users to instantly convert unused gift cards into Facebook Credits.
According to Plastic Jungle, 5% to 8% of all gift card balances are not redeemed, representing $30 billion in unused balances, with an average of $300 in unredeemed cards per American household. The company hopes to introduce efficiency and liquidity to the gift card economy, helping get cards into the hands of users who will spend them, and hopefully more, at a retailer’s sites and stores. PayPal Apps beta users can now type in a gift card’s number and pin and instantly have the card’s value deposited into their PayPal account. Previously users had to initiate the transaction online, then print a mailing label and send the card to Plastic Jungle where it would be verified and the value deposited into their account. The new integration utilizes PayPal’s Adaptive Payments APIs, and will launch with support for gift cards from 50 different retailers.
This instant conversion capability will soon be available on the Facebook application, giving users another way acquire Facebook Credits for use in social games and elsewhere. Users aren’t taxed for converting cards to Facebook Credits, and are given the same value that they would have received in cash. There’s currently no option to share a card redemption or purchase with friends, as Plastic Jungle has been concentrating on making the transaction flows as lightweight as possible. Plastic Jungle is considering sharing functionality, and is talking with social game developers about the potential for tie-ins. Plastic Jungle chief executive Bruce Bower tells us that customers redeeming cards for Facebook Credits have skewed more towards young males than those who redeem for cash, who skew more towards older female students and stay-at-home moms. Initially, some retailers were worried that participation would damage perceptions of their brands. Plastic Jungle conducted studies showing that users appreciated the flexibility of being able to convert a brand’s cards, and the transactions positively influenced their perception of that brand, Retailers are now eager to join the exchange. Plastic Jungle guarantees the gift cards it sells, offering a much more reliable secondary market for gift cards than eBay and Craigslist which are rife with fraudulent cards. While the company wishes it could receive more promotion and attention from Facebook, Bower says that Plastic Jungle is happy that Facebook is focused on establishing partnerships so their are places to spend Facebook Credits. This creates market demand, which in turn creates a need for Plastic Jungle. Bower said his company is confident that Facebook Credits will succeed, and the only question is whether the payment platform “will swallow up all transactions in the space”. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best Buy, Walmart Follow Target as Distributor of Pre-Paid Facebook Credits Gift Cards Posted: 26 Oct 2010 11:06 AM PDT
Today, it is expanding the cards to electronics and appliance retailer Best Buy and top retailer Walmart. The significance is that users have another way to buy Credits — while they’re doing relevant activities like shopping for a new computer to use Facebook and social games on, possibly. Facebook has more generally tried to offer as many payment options as possible for Credits, as additional volume means more revenue for third party developers, and for itself, as it takes a 30% cut of Credits fees. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PayPal Introduces More Frictionless Virtual Goods Payment System, Facebook Included Posted: 26 Oct 2010 10:12 AM PDT Today at its developer conference in San Francisco, PayPal is announcing new payment products designed for virtual goods. It will allow developers to sell virtual goods within games in as little as two clicks, instead of taking users off to another page, and will include the eBay-owned company’s existing pricing for small purchases: 5 percent of the total, plus $0.05 for purchases under $12. Facebook is also involved. PayPal says that “Facebook will integrate PayPal's new digital goods payment flow to make PayPal the way to make purchases on Facebook.” PayPal is already a main way for users to buy Facebook Credits and advertising, so we’ll be updating the post with more details on how that integration will work. Given that Credits will be the exclusive paid virtual currency for games and other applications on the Facebook.com developer platform, however Facebook integrates PayPal now will directly affect all developers. PayPal is broadly focusing on social, mobile and local, company product development vice president Osama Beider said on stage at the event today. The focus comes as these markets have exploded, helping to drive PayPal’s own revenue — and spur a variety of alternative payment competitors. The company is also launching an embeddable widget, that the company is showing off via Facebook Page e-commere startup Payvment. On stage, the two companies showed how a Page owner — or any other web developer — can quickly add the code to embed this widget. In terms of mobile, the company is similarly introducing a two-click payment system that can work across apps and platforms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 20 Gaining Facebook Pages: Zynga, SpongeBob, MTV, Disney and Music Posted: 26 Oct 2010 08:35 AM PDT
It took between 451,000 and 750,500 new Likes to make the list this week. Top Gainers This Week
YouTube came in first place among big brands this week after adding 750,500 new Likes to hit a 17.7 million total. Facebook came in second place with 726,300 new Likes and a fan base of 23.5 million. Then Coca-Cola was sixth, adding 487,800 Likes to reach 15.1 million. The Page for Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" show was at number 8 after adding 538,800 new Likes to pass 10 million; the iPad and iPhone apps, as well as episodes, have been promoted on the Wall.
MTV's Page was ninth with 538,000 new Likes to pass 7 million. Disney's Page followed at 10 with 534,800 new Likes and a total of 8.4 million; the Page had an interesting total of all Disney fans (across all the separate movie Pages), which was more than 67 million. Zynga's Texas Hold'em Poker has been on hiatus from our list, but was back at number 17, adding 476,300 Likes to grow to a 25.5 million total. Then Converse, of the shoes, came in at number 19 with 451,800 new fans and a total of 7.4; the company has been promoting a fun Halloween-inspired application for fans.
Music was not far behind the big brands on our list, though. Eminem came in third place with 660,500 new fans and 17.8 million total; he hasn't done much on the Page but still keeps growing, probably because of his current album. Rihanna came in next at number 4 with 603,000 new Likes and 12.3 million total; she's been promoting her new album, singles and music video. Usher was seventh, with 544,700 new fans and a 5.8 million total; he's been on tour and promoting related media stories. Akon was twelfth with 512,400 new Likes and a 9.5 million total; he's also been promoting upcoming performances. Bob Marley's Page came in at 14 with 496,800 new Likes to surpass 13 million by promoting the music of Marley's son, Ziggy with free downloads. Shakira's Page was number 15, adding 492,300 Likes to reach a 11.4 million total. Linkin Park was at 16 with 481,000 new Likes and 15.3 million total; the band's been promoting merchandise, their new album and tour. Katy Perry, who recently got married and is preparing a tour, was 18 on our list with 458,300 new Likes and 11.4 million total.
Lady Gaga has slipped to number 20 on our list with 450,900 new Likes and 21.2 million total. She may be hitting a plateau of popularity, or, just coasting as she works on her next album. Gaga did just reach 1 billion views on YouTube, though. Wrapping up the list were a few media Pages. "The Simpsons" came through as the only TV show to make the list this week with 594,400 new Likes and 10.8 million total in fifth place. Then there was the "Paranormal Activity" Page which grew considerably over the weekend, even as it came in number one at the box office. The Facebook Page took eleventh place, adding 518,00 new Likes to come in just under 2 million. Finally, the "Harry Potter" Page added 504,100 Likes to reach 4.8 million total at number 13; the Page has been releasing trailers, merch and interviews with cast members about the upcoming film. |
Investors hoping to get some exposure to Facebook through Mail.ru Group’s forthcoming initial public offering are getting access to just a share of Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies Ltd.’s holdings in the social network.
Pre-paid gift cards have been around for years, and social gaming companies began offering them since 2009 — Facebook has followed suite as it has expanded Credits this year. It introduced its own, 
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