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Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Facebook’s Mobile Apps Continue to Boom, With iOS, Android and Blackberry Still Leading

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:00 PM PDT

Whatever else Facebook has planned for its mobile presence, it is continuing to define how social networking is done across native applications on operating systems and on the mobile web. The company occasionally releases milestone numbers for overall mobile usage, and as you can see below compared against the total announced traffic numbers, mobile has quickly become a key part of what Facebook users do.

The most recent data that Facebook has publicly announced shows it having 500 million monthly active users as of July 2010, and 250 million on mobile in late March of this year. As you can see, mobile is now more than a third of all Facebook usage going by any numbers. (Note: We approximate the overall traffic number on the date of the last mobile announcement using data from our Inside Facebook Gold report. You’ll get an even steeper total if you use comScore’s data for the same period.)

Out of this growing mobile usage, Facebook is strong across native mobile apps and its mobile web site (along with any other services counted in the mobile total, such as custom SMS plans in some countries). We don’t have a precise way of breaking out the numbers from there, except that Facebook does publish monthly active and daily active users for native mobile clients.

Looking at these, you can get a more specific idea of its success.

As has been the case for years, its Facebook for iPhone app is in the lead, growing quickly and steadily to nearly 80 million MAU today. Even more striking is the fastet growing DAU count, at around 45 million. Its sticky  ratio, already above 50%, is continuing to go up. When the company launches its iPad app, it could see even more users and engagement.

Android-powered devices are charging hard as well. The Facebook for Android app’s MAU is at 45 million and DAU is at 29 million, resulting in a sticky factor of above 60% (albeit falling somewhat over the months).

Blackberry, for all the company’s woes, has continued to show similar results to the other two platforms. Its Facebook for Blackberry smartphones app has more than 36 million MAU, and 24 million DAU. As with Androids, it’s very sticky at above 65%, although also seeing some declines.

Facebook doesn’t publicly break out what percentage of users access mobile web apps versus native apps, but if you add up the MAU and DAU of these top three native apps, you get 161 million MAU. Other client apps, including for Windows Phone, Samsung, SideKick, and webOS, contribute a much smaller amount, altogether in the single-digit millions. Given that these numbers are months after the 250 million official announcement, it’s quite possible that Facebook has at least another 100 million users now who are on the web app whether or not they use clients. There is a little bit of overlap though as some users who choose native apps also occasionally hit Facebook’s mobile website.

Facebook’s penetration on mobile, especially on smartphones, as well as its mobile web strength, suggests it has good potential for introducing more mobile-related features to users. It has already done this with the launch of its Places check-in service. Whatever issues around HTML5, Credits and other components have yet to be worked out for users and developers, clearly, Facebook has a big launching pad for a mobile version of its platform — whether it just adds it to the mobile web app, or if it also promotes it through its client apps.

See below for links to our coverage of Facebook’s mobile growth over the years, in reverse chronological order:

Facebook Passes 250 Million Mobile Users, Overhauls Mobile Website

Out of Facebook's 400 Million Users, 100 Million Use its Mobile Services

Sandberg: 20 Million Users Now Accessing Facebook Through Mobile Platforms

Facebook Mobile: 1 Million Status Updates/Day, 15 Million Active Users

Facebook’s Music Dashboard Could Unite the Fractured Streaming Market

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 03:45 PM PDT

Facebook is preparing partnerships with several online music services including Spotify that will be hosted in a music dashboard, GigaOm reports. Users will be able to stream music, see what their friends are listening to, and share their own favorites — a realization of a long-time dream within the company to make music a core part of the site.

Beyond simply being a valuable way to find new music, the feature has the more practical benefit if increasing engagement, driving users to other parts of the site, and in doing so eventually producing ad revenue. For those in the online music industry, the big potential is in allowing users to buy songs or streaming subscriptions more easily than they have been before, with Facebook Credits

The Facebook Music Landscape

Music is a fundamental driver of sharing, and users are interested in learning about music and discussing it with their Facebook friends. 46 of the top 100 most popular Facebook Pages are music-related, as we covered recently. Music streaming Page tab app developer RootMusic this last week eclipsed Electronic Arts to control the second largest number of monthly active users behind Zynga.

Meanwhile, developers are experimenting with Facebook Credits as a digital content payment method. Warner Bros began renting films, and several bands are offering access to pay-per-view concert streaming video in exchange for Facebook’s virtual currency. Facebook is currently hiring a desktop software team, which might be building music scrobbling apps that relay a user’s listening habits.

The partnership with Spotify has been in the works for months, with Facebook employees gaining access to promotional accounts as the service tries to arrange licensing deals with the major U.S. record labels. Late last month, Forbes reported the partnership was almost ready to launch, but cited a specific Spotfiy dashboard rather than one incorporating multiple services.

Music Dashboard Features

Facebook’s Music Dashboard would be hosted as an official bookmark in the site’s left sidebar. Within it, users could recommend songs, stream recommendations of friends, see charts of the music most popular with friends, and view feeds of personal listening history and what friends are currently listening to.

A persistently play/pause button located next to the Chat feature would allow users to control playback as they browse around Facebook. This would facilitate huge amounts of listening time, and therefore advertising exposure.

Partnerships – Tech Giants or Music Sites

This latest news from GigaOm indicate that the Music Dashboard could host integrations with services including Pandora, Mog, Rdio, Last.fm, Grooveshark and more. This means users will be able to port their listening experience to Facebook regardless of which service they use. As Facebook is probably looking to secure the maximum numbers of users for the Music Dashboard, this model works much more effectively than an exclusive partnership with just Spotify.

There’s also the less likely possibility it would work with recently launched cloud music services from Amazon, Apple, and Google. Amazon makes the most sense, as the ecommerce giant has integrated its website with Facebook, and its MP3 downloads store is the underdog competing with Apple’s iTunes. Public relations tension withGoogle and the recent snub of a deep integration with Apple’s iOS 5 don’t bode well for a music partnership with those companies.

Music for Credits

With all the smaller music services in need of viral distribution and Amazon looking to beat iTunes, Facebook would have a lot of leverage in potential negotiations. Perhaps not immediately, but it could allow users to buy subscriptions or MP3s via Facebook Credits, off which it makes 30% – similar to iTunes’ fee.

The ability to learn about new music from friends, listen to it, and buy access all through Facebook could make the social network a digital content sales powerhouse without itself having to sign costly deals with the record labels.

Even if Facebook at first just provides affiliate links to buy or subscribe to music off-site, by aggregating the fractured music streaming and purchasing audience, it could come out on top regardless of which services succeed.

Featured Facebook Campaigns: Marriott Resorts, The National Guard, Discover Boating, Bravo, Nike and More

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 12:08 PM PDT

Events, adventures, videos, boats, pets, bikes and football (soccer) were all significant campaigns on Facebook this week. Some notable examples in our campaigns included Marriott’s creation of a Like-gated physical event in New York City and Discover Boating’s use of a boat-centric social network to grow its Page.

We've excerpted two of the campaigns below. You can see the full week's coverage in the Facebook Marketing Bible, which also includes detailed breakdowns of dozens of other featured campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook.

Step Into Summer By Marriott Resorts

Goal: Page Growth, Network Exposure, Product Purchase, Engagement

Core Mechanic: A free coupon printout to attend a New York simulation of a Marriott Resorts vacation, and for those unable to attend, a chance to win a free trip to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico.

Method: The landing tab of the Page asks users to print out a coupon to attend a one-day event in New York City hosted by Marriott Resorts that simulates a vacation, including pedicures, massages and free sandals. For those unable to attend the event, there's a chance to enter to win a vacation at one of Marriott's Mexican resorts in Puerto Vallarta.

Impact: The Page just but 1,300 Likes, although the Like-gated promotion will probably aid in this sense. It's novel to create a Like-gated physical event, helping people feel like they’re getting a tangible reward for their loyalty, even if they cannot attend.

Discover Boating's Welcome to the Water

Goal: Engagement, Product Purchase, Network Exposure

Core Mechanic: A Facebook app that serves as something of a social network for people who like to use boats for fishing, watersports, cruising or sailing.

Method: The Welcome to the Water app seems to simulate a social network for boaters, allowing users to create invites for other boaters, attain rank for their activities (captain, second mate, etc.), share who's invited and enter to win prizes.

Impact: A press release from Discover Boating noted that the Page grew from 39,000 to 100,000 in six weeks.

How are top brands in the industry designing their Facebook marketing campaigns? See the Facebook Marketing Bible for detailed breakdowns of dozens of Featured Campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook.

Friend Quizzes, Badoo, Zoosk, BandPage, VEVO and More on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by MAU

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT

Quizzes of all sorts were huge on our list of top growing Facebook applications by monthly active users this week. Among them, there were friend quizzes involving photos, statistics, descriptions, questions and more.

Then there were the music apps BandPage and VEVO, dating apps Zoosk and Badoo and a few others, including horoscopes and friend.ly. The apps on our list grew from between 878,600 and 23.3 milliom MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook.

Top Gainers This Week

Name MAU Gain Gain,%
1. Empires & Allies 32,974,509 +23,319,006 +242%
2. 60 Photos 19,951,161 +5,541,234 +38%
3. Quotes 5,785,459 +5,018,353 +654%
4. Badoo 30,038,688 +3,973,931 +15%
5. Zoosk 13,355,012 +3,213,010 +32%
6. BandPage by RootMusic 32,185,941 +2,411,556 +8%
7. Amor 3,981,964 +2,333,407 +142%
8. VEVO for Artists 8,867,961 +2,320,200 +35%
9. Army Attack 4,182,229 +1,594,634 +62%
10. Tag Friends 2,547,918 +1,507,583 +145%
11. Monster Galaxy 16,166,748 +1,476,780 +10%
12. Social Statistics 2,192,368 +1,396,213 +175%
13. HTML + iframe + FBML = iwipa 10,110,901 +1,292,120 +15%
14. Friend Matrix 3,235,763 +1,167,139 +56%
15. Daily Horoscope 12,292,828 +1,152,873 +10%
16. 21 questions 17,260,820 +1,132,274 +7%
17. e-Diagnostics 4,400,385 +1,120,263 +34%
18. Pieces of Flair 3,442,754 +1,119,251 +48%
19. friend.ly 6,762,082 +948,655 +16%
20. My Tab 2,627,770 +878,616 +50%

60 Photos is an app that grew by 5.5 million MAU; the app allows users to rate their friend's Facebook photos, and publishes a feed story each time a positive review is given. Quotes is an app that grew (mostly in the United States and United Kingdom) by more than 5 million MAU by allowing users to answer questions about their friends, posting answers to their Walls. Amor grew by 2.3 million mostly in Mexico, is in Spanish, and is a quiz asking users about their friends, publishing feed stories with answers to their Walls.

Tag Friends is an app that grew in the US and India, by 1.5 million MAU, and allows users to select a descriptive word for their friends, then publishes a feed story. Social Statistics grew in the US by 1.3 million MAU and publishes a feed story with a list of a user's top friends. Friend Matrix is an app that grew by 1.1 million MAU; the app creates a collage of your Facebook friends, publishing it to the stream. 21 questions grew by 1.1 million MAU and asks users 25 questions about their friends, publishing feed stories with each answer.  e-Diagnostics grew by 1.1 million MAU; the app appears to be an IQ test, then at the end of the questions, the app asks users questions about their friends, publishing many feed stories.

Dating apps Badoo and Zoosk grew this week, too. Badoo grew by 3.9 million MAU mostly in Mexico, France and Italy. Zoosk grew by 3.2 million MAU in the US. BandPage by RootMusic grew by 2.4 .million in the US and VEVO for Artists grew by 2.3 million MAU. HTML + iframe + FBML = iwipa grew by 1.2 million MAU; it allows users to build a Page tab using code. My Tab is an app that grew by 878,600 MAU and allows users to build a simple Page tab, asking them to sign up to gain access to more than just text features.

Then there was Daily Horoscope with 1.1 million MAU this week; the app grew all over the place, and gives users the option to post daily to their Wall. Pieces of Flair grew by 1.1 million MAU and tells users it will allow them to describe themselves with buttons, or gift them to friends. Finally, friend.ly grew by 948,700 MAU.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

tirsdag den 21. juni 2011 at 07.46