Inside Facebook
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- Amazon Lets Users Send Gift Cards Via Wall Posts, which Recipients Must Redeem through Facebook
- Indonesia Eclipses the UK as Facebook’s Second Largest Market
- Facebook Adds “Like this Open Graph Object” Button to Open Graph Activity Stories
- EA/Playfish Also Signs Five Year Deal to Exclusively Use Credits on Facebook
- Facebook Releases Details on the High Resolution Photos API
- Announcing Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011
- Facebook Helps U.S. Users Vote through Polling Locator App
- Top 20 Growing Facebook Pages: Disney, Converse, Music, Jackass and Jackie Chan
| Amazon Lets Users Send Gift Cards Via Wall Posts, which Recipients Must Redeem through Facebook Posted: 02 Nov 2010 07:04 PM PDT Amazon has launched a new Facebook integration which allows users to send gift cards to a friend’s wall. It is also running a promotion where users get $5 in free MP3s in exchange for sending gift cards (minimum value of $1) to five Facebook friends. The promotions generate leads for retailers both direct and indirectly, and require users to give Amazon access to their social graph in order to redeem their cards.
Earlier this year, Amazon began allowing users to connect with their Facebook accounts to receive purchase and gift recommendations. The new integrations build off of this account connection, meaning users may see suggestions based on their Likes and friends with upcoming birthdays on Amazon after buying a Facebook wall post gift card. When Amazon users go to purchase a gift card, they’ll now see an option to use Facebook as the delivery method, along with email, print, and mail. Once a user has connected their accounts, they can use a typeahead to select a Facebook friend as the card’s recipient, choose the value of the card, set a delivery date, and add a personal message which can be made public or only visible to the recipient. Users can view an example of their card and the wall post that will be sent, reassuring users of exactly what they’re sharing. On the delivery date, a wall post is made on the purchaser’s behalf providing a link to the gift card. Anyone can click the link to view the card, but the recipient must connect their account to Facebook to be able to redeem it.
Facebook is not the most reliable method for sending gift cards. If the sender disconnects their Facebook account from Amazon, or revokes certain permissions, the card may not be sent. The delivery can also fail if the recipient doesn’t allow wall posts or deletes their Facebook account before delivery. Some people simply don’t read their wall closely, and since their is no email sent from Amazon to the recipient, they could be unaware they’ve received a card. Other than allowing others to see that you’ve sent someone a gift, there’s little additional value in sending a card via Facebook instead of email.
In a move that could be considered a violation of Facebook’s terms of service (section 4.2, to be specific), Amazon is offering a $5 gift card incentive to those who post gift cards to five of their friends. It’s a way for users to exchange their social graph for their money back, since each gift only needs to be for $1 or more.
The real winner in these promotions seems to be Amazon, which gets users to both connect their own account, and force others to do the same if they want to redeem their gifts. Those looking to give small holiday presents and receive a kickback might enjoy the second promotion, but providing their Facebook information might be a high price for recipients to pay in exchange for a single MP3. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indonesia Eclipses the UK as Facebook’s Second Largest Market Posted: 02 Nov 2010 12:53 PM PDT
Indonesia, a Southeast Asian country that has nearly tripled its number of Facebook users over the past year, has finally eclipsed the United Kingdom as the second-largest Facebook market behind the United States. Its growth underpins Facebook’s emerging strength in Southeast Asia, a region has become strategic, rife with opportunities to push virtual goods and Credits. As the world’s fourth more populous country, Indonesia promises to be one of Facebook’s key markets for years to come with 29.4 million users. Spread out across thousands of islands, Indonesia is a patchwork nation; the country’s official language Bahasa grew out of centuries of trading between hundreds of ethnic groups. Only a small minority of people in the country actually speak Bahasa as their mother tongue. Initially when Facebook’s growth began accelerating, Muslim clerics debated the morality of the service, and were concerned that the social network would facilitate gossip and flirtation. The country’s leading Islamic council signaled that they were interested in regulating the social network the way they did with its predecessors Myspace and Friendster. Nevertheless, Facebook continued growing, adding more than 17 million users in a single year and politicians and leading religious figures have come to embrace the site. The country’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has more than 480,000 thousand fans for his Facebook Page. Some of the country’s top Muslim clerics have started Pages too, like Chairul Tanjung, who sits on the board of Indonesia’s highest religious authority, the Indonesian Ulema Council. Overall, Indonesia has a fairly young population and on Facebook, the 13 to 25 age groups are over-represented compared to the makeup of the company’s top 16 markets (see below).
Facebook also boasts 67 percent Internet penetration among the country’s 45 million Internet users, according to the country’s ISP association and data on the company’s users there. In addition, the country has a growing number of people accessing the web via mobile devices — about 9 million, according to Onno Purbo, a longtime information technologies activist in the country. So Facebook’s mobile apps and 0, it’s low-bandwidth mobile site, will play an increasingly important role there. While the iPhone leads Facebook’s mobile presence globally, in Indonesia, Nokia is the device manufacturer with dominant share in the country. Blackberry and Android are also gradually closing in. Anecdotally, developers tell us that social gaming is an important factor powering Facebook adoption in the region. And Facebook has moved to capitalize on that through a recent deal with Malaysian payments company MOL, which also has a presence in Indonesia. To read more, and view data on Facebook's growth and demographics in over 160 countries around the world, please see Inside Facebook Gold. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Adds “Like this Open Graph Object” Button to Open Graph Activity Stories Posted: 02 Nov 2010 12:12 PM PDT Facebook has added the option to instantly Like an Open Graph object to the activity story published when a friend Likes an Open Graph object, such as a website or news article Previously users only had the option to Like (show appreciation for) the story, or visit the object, but not Like the object. The change should help users quickly connect to more Open Graph objects without leaving Facebook.
The change is part of a wave of updates to how users interact with Pages, applications, and Open Graph objects on walls and the news feed. Facebook added an Unlike button to feed and activity stories published by Pages and Open Graph objects, and began allowing users to remove, mute or blacklist an application upon removing one its stories — both to help users punish spammy publishers. Now when a friend finds and Likes an interesting piece of content somewhere outside of Facebook, users can join them in connecting to the object by clicking the “Like this page” or “Like this link” button. Once Liked, users are given the option to rescind the Like with an Unlike button.
One issue with the change is that since the word Like now appears twice on stories — once to show your appreciation for a friend’s action, and again to connect to content publisher — some users may be confused. Open Graph objects often have a narrower focus and audience than Pages, meaning that when users do find an object that interests them, it can send them highly relevant updates. Close friends frequently have very similar interests and opinions, making them a reliable way to find appealing Open Graph objects. The increase in Open Graph object Likes brought about by this change will reinforce the need for a way to manage these Likes, either through the profile editor, or the Platform privacy dashboard. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| EA/Playfish Also Signs Five Year Deal to Exclusively Use Credits on Facebook Posted: 02 Nov 2010 11:12 AM PDT
While many developers had directly integrated with third-party payment options like PayPal, mobile payment options, offers, and more during the early years of the platform, that began to change last year. The developer community began to whisper that Facebook was going to make then use Credits exclusively, and over the course of the first part of this year, Facebook began to talk publicly about doing so. Playfish has been testing Credits for months, and given the string of other “five year strategic partnerships” that Facebook and social gaming companies have announced, most in the industry assumed it would be doing the same. EA is getting the same deal as everyone else, in that Facebook will take a 30% cut of Credits revenue and share the other 70%, according to Facebook. Some developers, especially larger ones that had already built their own payment infrastructures, were not happy about the switch. But Facebook’s intention is not just to make money from the booming virtual goods economy that has emerged on its platform, but to improve the payments user experience and increase the volume of payments for everyone. One view is that it needed to make everyone use Credits in order to have the virtual currency get traction. Facebook itself has also invested heavily in making this happen, building out its payments team, greatly increasing the number of payment options, and iterating on payments interface flows. So, now that so many developers have signed on, Credits should be starting to generate higher revenues — and, if everything goes according to plan, the entire ecosystem could see revenue increases as more users spend more money. To dig deeper on the social gaming landscape, including Credits and monetization dynamics on the Facebook Platform, check out our new report – Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Releases Details on the High Resolution Photos API Posted: 02 Nov 2010 10:30 AM PDT Facebook has released read and write APIs for its new high-resolution photos, which all users can see and download, but only some can upload. All photos now include a “images” field containing height, width, and source information about all available sizes. Facebook plans on rolling out the ability to upload to all users soon, but until then, any high resolution photos uploaded through the API on the behalf of those without upload access will be sized down to 720 pixels. At the end of September, high resolutions photos, flash uploading, bulk tagging, and a lightbox view were integrated into Facebook photos, the world’s most popular photo sharing product. Since, Facebook has also added drag-and-drop photo and album reordering, and the ability to receive a copy of all your Facebook photos using the Download Your Information product. This high resolution photos API allows developers to create applications which upload high resolution photos to multiple sharing services, let users edit their existing high res Facebook photos, create high res prints, and more.
In an an answer to a Quora question asking whether Facebook would release a high-resolution photos API, Facebook photos team engineer Nathaniel Roman explained the particulars of the API. “If a user is in the group with access to high res photos, developers do not need to do anything special.” Uploads of high resolution photos “take significantly longer”, so developers should arrange some kind of content to be shown while the user waits, or carry out the upload in the background. Roman also said that image details would be available through the Facebook Query Language, which allows for access to the Graph API with support for “batching multiple queries into a single call.” The lack of high resolution photo capabilities was a significant deficiency of Facebook photos, but now the option is also open to Facebook’s thriving third-party developer ecosystem. Combined with the ability to download one’s Facebook photos later, the API and native user interface will decrease the need for users to keep bulky photo files on their computers once they’ve uploaded them. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcing Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011 Posted: 02 Nov 2010 09:00 AM PDT
2010 will be remembered as the year that games on social networks became a billion dollar business and transformed the way millions more people socialized with friends online. With an up-to-$750 million acquisition of Playdom by Disney, Playfish’s integration across Electronic Arts, the continued growth of Zynga, the rise of CrowdStar and Kabam, and continued venture investments, social games are impacting businesses across the media landscape. Despite the challenges facing the market, it's become clear that there are still substantial opportunities for social game developers with virtual goods revenue models, but the market is still evolving rapidly.
Inside Network is proud to announce a new original research report by Justin Smith and Charles Hudson that is exclusively focused on the future of the social gaming market, entitled Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011. This is Inside Network's second annual edition of the Future of Social Gaming report. It will be released on November 16, but is available for discount pre-order now. How big is the market, and where will social gaming go in 2011? How will existing players fare as Facebook shifts the social gaming landscape through the rollout of Facebook Credits and continued changes to the platform? Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011 provides deeper insight into social game monetization, development, customer acquisition, and the key questions facing the space in 2011 than you'll find anywhere else. About the Report Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2011 gives you an inside view of the future at this critical juncture in the intersection of social networking and online games. We have compiled months of original research from dozens of top executives and entrepreneurs from all parts of the social gaming ecosystem to produce eye-opening source data and analysis that is not available anywhere else. Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2010 takes the closest look at the present state of social games and the future of this strong but still rapidly changing industry. What We Cover
What you get In addition to our deep dive into key aspects of the social gaming ecosystem, the report also offers extended coverage on:
See the full table of contents below: Table of Contents
More Data, More Actionable Insights In 2010, social games began to show what kind of value can be created on top of social networks. 2011 will be an even more important year. Social gaming, powered by virtual goods, is this year's industry to watch. If you're involved, or are considering jumping in, Inside Virtual Goods will be one of your most important tools. One year of original data and exclusive in-depth reports delivered on a quarterly basis is $2,495 and contains:
About the Authors Justin Smith Founder, Inside Network Justin Smith is the founder of Inside Network, the first company dedicated to providing news and market research to the Facebook platform and social gaming ecosystem. Justin leads Inside Network's Inside Virtual Goods and AppData research and data services, and serves as co-editor ofInside Facebook and Inside Social Games. Prior to Inside Network, he was formerly Head of Product at Watercooler, one of the leading application and game developers on the Facebook Platform. Prior to Watercooler, Justin was an early employee at Xfire, the largest social utility for gamers, which was sold to Viacom in 2006. Justin holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University.
Former VP Business Development, Serious Business Charles Hudson is the former VP of Business Development for Serious Business, a leading social games developer on the Facebook platform. Prior to Serious Business, he was formerly the Sr. Director for Business Development at Gaia Interactive, a leading online hangout for teens. Prior to Gaia, Charles worked in New Business Development at Google and focused on new partnership opportunities for early-stage products in the advertising, mobile, and e-commerce markets. Prior to joining Google, he was a Product Manager for IronPort Systems, a leading provider of anti-spam hardware appliances that was acquired by Cisco Systems for $830 million in 2007. Charles holds an MBA and BA from Stanford University. Get The Annual Membership Get Annual Membership (Includes Report + 3 Additional Quarterly Issues):
OR Buy Single Report:
* Pre-order discount ends November 15, 2010. All pre-ordered reports will be delivered on November 16, 2010. Although the report will not be released until next Tuesday, November 16, we are offering a special pre-order discount for those who purchase now. A one year subscription is $1,995 until November 16, at which point the price will go to US $2,495. The one year subscription includes three quarterly updates on key developments in the space. Or, you can download just this report. The pre-order price is $795 until January 26, at which point the price will go to US $995. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Helps U.S. Users Vote through Polling Locator App Posted: 02 Nov 2010 08:30 AM PDT Facebook has been heavily involved in the mid-term elections in the U.S. this year. We've previously written about how important Facebook has become in elections worldwide, and also about how governments use Facebook to share election information.
Today, Facebook is helping its U.S. users over the age of 18 to go and vote by using the Facebook platform to remind them in the first place, but also help them to find their polling location. A blue box appears at the top of the user's homepage today that says "Find your polling place on the U.S. Politics Page and click the 'I Voted' button to tell your friends you voted." Next to this text is a badge that says "Vote" and is decorated with red, blue and stars and a running tally of people on Facebook who voted. Once you do this you can post the fact to your stream. Early this morning the tally was running just under 500,000 but has quickly inched towards 1 million. And ever the social network, Facebook also tells you how many of your own friends have already voted on the tally as well.
If you click on the U.S. Politics Page you are taken to a tab on that Page with an application built by Involver and information from the non-partisan Voting Information Project. The app uses Google Maps and asks you to type in your location to find the nearest polling place; the app gives information about polling places, state and local voting and other useful things to know about voting in your area.
In addition to this app and the voting tally Facebook's U.S. Politics Page, Facebook is set to broadcast a live town hall from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University beginning at 7 p.m. (Eastern). Facebook is working with ABC on the broadcast. There are also "Races to Watch" tip sheets available, showing which politicians are using Facebook the most.
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| Top 20 Growing Facebook Pages: Disney, Converse, Music, Jackass and Jackie Chan Posted: 02 Nov 2010 07:52 AM PDT There’s an Top Gainers This Week
Big brands topped our list this week. YouTube was in first place after adding 872,300 Likes to make it to 18.6 million total. Disney's main Page, which we wrote about last week, made it to second with 779,000 new Likes and a 9.2 million total. Facebook was in third place with 736,800 new Likes and a total of 24.2 million; the company has been heavily involved in U.S. elections this year. Coca-Cola's Page was fourth, adding 716,900 new Likes to a 15.8 million total. MTV was fifth, adding about 683,300 new Likes to reach just over 7.7 million fans. Converse All Star's Page was at number 8 and passed 8 million fans by adding 631,200 new Likes; the Converse Page was eleventh with 585,000 new Likes and a total of 6.4 million with a big growth spurt right before Halloween. Both Pages might have benefitted from the Frankenpic Halloween app we wrote about last week.
Oreo's Page was at number 15 with 490,300 new Likes and 12.6 million fans; the company is still running the fan of the week profile photo contest and promoted its cookies for Halloween. Only a handful of musicians on our list this week, surprisingly. Rihanna took sixth place with 658,000 new Likes, passing 13 million fans, and promoting a fan photo contest to win a trip to meet her. Eminem's Page moved to ninth place this week with 626,400 new Likes and 18.4 million total; he hasn't done anything on Facebook so he seems to be riding his popularity.
Usher was tenth with 605,500 new Likes, 6.4 million total, and promoting his upcoming tour and award nominations. Singer Akon was at 14 with 512,500 new Likes and surpassing 10 million total. Siren Shakira was at number 19 with 466,100 more Likes and coming in with 11.8 million; she's promoting a new album and touring. There was also an interesting mix of TV shows, movies and actors this week. "The Simpsons" came in at number 7 after adding 652,000 new Likes to his 11.5 million total. "SpongeBob SquarePants" was at number 12 with 578,800 new Likes and a total of 10.6 million fans. The "Harry Potter" Page came in at 13 by adding 546,200 new Likes to its 5.3 million.
The "Jackass" movie was at number 16, adding 483,700 new Likes to reach 3.5 million; the movie has been doing well since its recent premiere. Adam Sandler's Page was on our list at number 17, adding 478,000 new Likes to the 9.7 million total, which is puzzling since the page hasn't been updated since 2009. The "Toy Story" Page joined Disney's on the list at number 18, adding 467,000 to the 7.5 million total; the movie's DVD and Blu-ray are set for release today. Finally, the one and only Jackie Chan's Page was number 20 on our list after adding 457,300 new Likes and passing 6.8 million. |
[Editor's Note: The data cited in this article is excerpted from 
Following 
Charles Hudson
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