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Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Facebook to increase profile picture size for pages

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 04:26 PM PDT

Facebook will increase the size of profile pictures on all business and fan pages on Thursday, according to an email the company sent to page owners.

The new profile picture will appear as 160×160 pixels and will sit 23 pixels from the left and 210 pixels from the top of the page. This will not affect pages that use distinct images for their profile picture and cover photo, but pages that incorporate the profile picture into the cover photo — as seen in the example below — should be aware that the change could affect their designs.

Pages' profile pictures will now be presented as the same size as users' profile photos. Previously, pages' profile pictures appeared as 125×125 pixels, though some pages noticed Facebook testing the new size earlier this month. The confusing thing about profile pictures on the site is that the uploaded image must be a minimum of 180×180 pixels, then Facebook resizes the image on users' screens.

We’ve provided a visualization of the new specs below. According to Facebook, the change will go into affect sometime on Thursday.

Native Android apps can now get distribution through Facebook discovery channels

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 02:59 PM PDT

Facebook today announced that native Android apps will now be able to benefit from the same social discovery channels as web apps and native iOS apps that integrate with the social network.

Previously native Android apps that used Facebook login couldn't get distribution through mobile News Feed, Timeline, bookmarks and requests. These channels have been available to HTML5 and iOS apps since October 2011; in February, Facebook told us that 60 million monthly active users navigated to mobile apps from the social network. Apps like Pinterest, BranchOut, Diamond Dash and Words With Friends are among those that have seen millions of additional monthly visits by incorporating Facebook single sign-on. As part of the latest update to Facebook for Android, native Android apps can now access the same features.

Android developers who currently use single sign-on can visit their app settings to enable deep linking. After that, the native app will open when users tap on Facebook stories or requests within Facebook. For example, Spotify users will be able to instantly play songs from their Android devices when they tap on a friend's listening activity (see example right). If users don't have the native app installed, they will be taken to a download page.

Apps that integrate Open Graph, in addition to single-sign on, have additional opportunities for discovery on mobile. Facebook recently added game stories in News Feed as a way for users to discover apps on their mobile devices, and a new “trending articles” module gives additional traffic to social readers on the web and mobile devices. We’ve also seen expanded activity modules on mobile Timeline this week.

Developers will be able to get insights about the distribution of referral traffic from the mobile feed, versus mobile search, bookmarks, notifications and Timeline. This was first introduced in March.

More details about deep linking for native Android apps is available on the Facebook Developers site here.

How likely is to Facebook lower its 30 percent fee for developers on the platform?

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 12:25 PM PDT

Facebook acknowledged in a regulatory filing that it might reduce the percentage fee it takes from developers building on its platform if it expands its payments business beyond games.

Currently, the social network requires social games to use Facebook Credits, of which it takes a 30 percent cut of revenue when players buy virtual goods. Some developers have experimented with using Credits for digital goods like song downloads and streaming movies, but Facebook’s currency is not mandatory for these apps.

Monday's S-1 amendment is the first time Facebook has publicly suggested that it might change its revenue share structure. However, it is important to note that before the company goes public, it is required to include any relevant risk factors and forward-looking statements that could affect its business, however theoretical.

Nonetheless, is widely believed that Facebook will one day change this policy and require non-game applications to use Credits — "Payments," as the program is known to investors. And while a 30 percent cut is an industry standard for revenue sharing models with developers — Apple and Google take this much from mobile app developers — it might be too high to encourage growth in areas outside of virtual goods.

For example, Spotify requires users to sign up using a Facebook account. The app benefits from prominent distribution across the social network, but so far Facebook doesn't generate any direct revenue from the music streaming service. If the social network were to one day say to Spotify, as it did to game developers last year, that it would begin taking 30 percent of every $9.99 subscription, the music provider likely wouldn't be able to sustain its business. However, if Facebook takes a lower percentage, then Spotify and apps from other industries might thrive from the virality of the platform and unified payment processing.

It's very likely that Facebook's payments infrastructure will support subscription billing in the near future, and when it does, it could allow developers to retain a greater share of revenue. Facebook has board members Don Graham and Reed Hastings, CEOs of The Washingon Post Company and Netflix, respectively, to provide insight about the type of model that would be mutually beneficial for the social network and other industries building on the platform. Those two companies, along with Spotify, would likely be launch partners if Facebook decided to provide this option.

Exactly how Facebook would decide to distinguish between games and other apps is unclear. What it might do instead is charge different percentage fees for virtual goods like decorations or power-ups versus digital goods like mp3s or livestreams. If Facebook began to support payments for physical goods, those too could fall under a different tier for revenue share. The company could also take a smaller cut of purchases over a certain dollar amount and maintain its 30 percent share of micropayments. Then again, Facebook might simply decide to take a lower percentage fee across all applications. This would give developers more incentive to build on the platform, and Facebook could overcome its loss of revenue share by operating at a larger scale than before.

Mobile, Converse, Snoop Dogg, more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook pages

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 09:08 AM PDT

 

Facebook’s mobile application for feature phones topped our list of the fastest growing Facebook pages by Likes this week. There were plenty of movie and music pages, as well as Converse, "The Simpsons" and others.

Pages on our list this week grew from between 382,200 to 3.1 million Likes. We compile this list with our PageData tool, which tracks page growth across Facebook.

# Name Total Likes People Talking About Daily Growth Weekly Growth
1   Facebook for Ever… 77,696,642 2,280,034 +479,066 +3,197,474
2   Converse 29,512,887 397,693 +40,547 +2,065,672
3   Titanic 21,211,346 1,743,131 +130,778 +1,117,928
4   Step Up Movie 11,738,260 185,637 +8,156 +1,100,743
5   Adele 26,179,444 941,052 +106,249 +822,724
6   The Simpsons 48,746,943 869,740 +79,345 +665,588
7   Will Smith 29,654,312 732,527 +82,076 +611,618
8   Eclipse 4,441,322 26,107 +220,813 +598,822
9   Harry Potter 44,666,605 1,001,687 +92,337 +575,365
10   Breaking Dawn 5,059,737 225,595 +140,838 +544,698
11   Shrek 24,487,036 567,809 +62,927 +507,066
12   Bruno Mars 22,000,999 582,132 +66,426 +493,178
13   Facebook 65,532,191 548,579 +57,599 +469,399
14   Resident Evil 5 655,578 15,711 +177,775 +455,448
15   Jeremy Lin 954,881 552,606 +34,979 +438,508
16   Snoop Dogg 16,926,591 691,671 +54,131 +419,538
17   Pitbull 18,658,579 715,754 +57,536 +409,857
18   Adam Sandler 30,249,552 502,523 +49,626 +388,941
19   Avatar 29,900,281 558,802 +45,549 +386,526
20   Nicki Minaj 18,205,858 348,512 +49,549 +382,039

Facebook for Every Phone was at the top of our list, growing by almost 3.2 million Likes. The mobile app recently got an update and users are given an option to Like the page when they log in. Converse repeated its formula from last week, posting plenty of photos, including an historic shoe. "The Simpsons" appeared to grow based on its general popularity.

Films that had pages that grew significantly either made the list because they're in theaters and/or promoting theatrical releases, or due to what appeared to be page consolidations. "Titanic" is currently in theaters, Will Smith is promoting his upcoming movie, as is Adam Sandler; other film pages showed no recent activity and appeared to be consolidated.

Musicians this week included regulars like Adele and Bruno Mars, as well as others who made the list due to a surge in popularity from touring and frequent posting. For example, Snoop Dogg recently performed in a well-received concert alongside a hologram of deceased rapper Tupac. Pitbull is also on tour and promoting his work on a movie soundtrack.

onsdag den 25. april 2012 at 07.29