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Inside Facebook

Facebook announces paid app beta program

Posted: 09 May 2012 03:46 PM PDT

Facebook today announced that it will begin supporting paid apps on its platform to be featured and sold in the new App Center also revealed today.

Paid apps are a new monetization model for Facebook. Previously, the social network primarily supported freemium applications that users add for free and then potentially pay for in-app items like virtual goods or digital media. For purchases within games, Facebook requires developers to use Credits, of which it takes a 30 percent fee. The company has said it may begin taking a cut of payments from non-game applications in the future, though it might adjust the percentage it collects.

Facebook offered few details about the program and emphasized that the majority of transactions will continue to occur within apps. The company did say that the program will involve "a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com." It did not share how many developers would be involved with the beta or mention the possibility of subscription-based models for applications. However, we believe it could be discussing this option with partners like Spotify, Netflix or the Washington Post.

For flat-fee apps, Facebook might see interest from some game and utilities developers. These are typically the type of applications that lead the paid charts on iOS and Android devices, however, most developers are finding that the freemium model is ultimately more lucrative. With the reach and promotion opportunities on Facebook, we could see a new class of applications emerge, but it is hard to think of a range of examples that would benefit from this type of model as opposed to using in-app transactions. This could potentially work for live streaming events, like concerts or sporting events, which social entertainment developer Milyoni has found users willing to pay for on Facebook.

Facebook downplayed the significance of paid applications today, telling us it expects the bulk of transactions to continue to come through in-app purchases. However, it is surprising to have this type of announcement occur while the company is on the road promoting its initial public offering. Today's updated S-1 regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission does not include a mention about the potential opportunities or risks associated with this experiment. The amendment instead included notes about how the social network’s mobile growth has led the number of daily active users to outpace the number of ads it shows:

Based upon our experience in the second quarter of 2012 to date, the trend we saw in the first quarter of DAUs increasing more rapidly than the increase in number of ads delivered has continued. We believe this trend is driven in part by increased usage of Facebook on mobile devices where we have only recently begun showing an immaterial number of sponsored stories in News Feed, and in part due to certain pages having fewer ads per page as a result of product decisions.

Developers who want to apply for the paid app beta program can do so here.

Early Bird Deadline for Social Media Marketing Boot Camp Ends Tomorrow, May 10

Posted: 09 May 2012 03:00 PM PDT

Editor’s note: Our sister company, Mediabistro, hosts online workshops that teach social media strategy. The summer session of their Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starts June 7. Read on for details.

Mediabistro’s Social Media Marketing Boot Camp will show you how to launch a successful marketing campaign across various platforms with an in-depth look at how to optimize your Facebook marketing plans. You’ll create a complete social media package to build your brand, expand your audience, and generate revenue with the help of social media experts and advisors.

Over eight weeks, you’ll design a complete social media strategy, launch your campaign, and measure results. You’ll hear keynote speeches and participate in how-to sessions with leading social media experts. The program includes:

  • Brian Carter (Author, The Like Economy and Facebook Marketing) will discuss new features for marketers on Facebook Pages.
  • Jim Tobin (CEO, Ignite Social Media) will show you how to use data from Facebook Insights to guide your Facebook content.
  • Michael Monello (Partner and Chief Creative Officer, Campfire) will share examples of Campfire’s award-winning social media campaigns for HBO, Discovery Channel, and Snapple.
  • Jen Brown (Digital Director, Today.com) will show you how to tailor content for Facebook and other social media platforms for a complete social media strategy.
  • Plus 12 more Facebook and social media leaders.

The interactive online conference starts June 7. The early bird pricing ends tomorrow, Thursday, May 10, so sign up now.

Facebook to provide developers with new app ratings metric

Posted: 09 May 2012 01:54 PM PDT

Along with the new App Center dashboard Facebook announced today, the company says it will soon provide developers with a “app ratings metric” for them to understand how users rate their app over time.

App ratings, which are on a scale of one to five stars, will be broken down by age and gender. This will give developers new insight into the feedback their apps receive. Previously, developers could only see their apps’ average overall rating and they could not see how the rating varied over time.

Facebook is putting a renewed focus on star ratings since eliminating the feature from apps in October 2011. At one point it seemed Facebook would focus on helping users discover games through their friends rather than anonymous ratings, which could be manipulated by developers and biased players. Then in early April, star ratings returned. Now instead of having a reviews tab that anyone can access at any time, Facebook has been randomly prompting users to rate apps while or after they use them. It is unclear whether this will continue to be the way users rate apps or whether they will be able to rate apps from the App Center or directly within an app.

Either way, developers will be looking for ways to maximize their ratings since Facebook says “Success through the App Center is tied to the quality of an app. We use a variety of signals, such as user ratings and engagement, to determine if an app is listed in the App Center.”

Facebook replaces Apps and Games Dashboard with App Center, introduces paid app model

Posted: 09 May 2012 01:39 PM PDT

Facebook is replacing the current Apps and Games Dashboard with a new App Center feature that sorts Facebook apps by category and user ratings.

Detailed on Facebook’s developer blog, App Center will be viewable from Facebook.com, mobile web and Facebook’s iOS and Android apps when it rolls out over the next few weeks. Clicking on an app from within App Center directs a user to that app’s native platform, where the user can install the app. The new feature also introduces app detail pages, which is where users will land when typing an app name into Facebook’s search function. Apps are also filtered into additional categories for “top grossing,” “recommended” and “trending,” as well as module that displays friends’ apps.

In order for an app to appear in App Center, developers must follow a set of submission guidelines and wait for review from Facebook. The company says it will use a variety of signals — including user feedback and engagement within apps — to determine whether or not an app will be listed in App Center. Details about how to submit an app to be listed are available here.

As we can see in the screenshot below, star ratings figure prominently into App Center’s categorization. Facebook has been playing with the ratings system a great deal in the last three months, introducing new modules to solicit more ratings from users. A new app ratings metric is being added to Insights so that developers can track user ratings over time.

This is a reversal of the social network’s position on app discovery a year ago, when Facebook relied on algorithmic discovery of new apps. By creating a centralized app hub, Facebook hopes to drive more growth to higher-quality apps — and to new categories of app that are currently difficult to find. The social network will also likely drive more mobile app installs.

Facebook is also announcing a new paid apps model, though it still expects the bulk of transactions to be driven by in-app purchases. Interested developers are being asked to contact Facebook directly for more details.

App Center will go live in the coming weeks.

New this week on the Inside Network Job Board: Lowe’s, Townsquare Media, Sociable Labs and more

Posted: 09 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT

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: Lowe’s, Townsquare Media, Sociable Labs, Fiveonenine Games, SponsorPay, IMVU, King.com, Kixeye, PopCap Games, Nuukster, Sneaky Games, GameHouse,  Ryzing, Machine Zone and SoJo Studios.

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.

Socialcam passes Yahoo, CityVille to become most popular Facebook app by monthly active users

Posted: 09 May 2012 10:55 AM PDT

Video application Socialcam vaulted to the No. 1 position on our AppData charts after gaining 40 million monthly active Facebook-connected users in two weeks.

Socialcam overtook the Yahoo Social Bar news integration and Zynga's game CityVille, both of which have lost MAU over the past few days. CityVille has been steadily declining for about a year, and Yahoo has recently seen a dip that could be the result of News Feed changes affecting social reader apps.

Socialcam and its competitor Viddy — No. 5 on the AppData MAU leaderboard — have had explosive growth because of their Open Graph integration that automatically shares users' video viewing activity back on Facebook. Both are mobile apps that allow users to add filters and share videos from their smartphones, though unlike photo app Instagram, these apps have more fully functioning websites that allow users to watch and browse other videos. Socialcam also seems to be seeding its servie with content from YouTube. Its "trending videos" section seems to include mostly traditional web video content, not the short-form mobile video it seeks to help users share.

When users click on Socialcam links, they are prompted to give the app permission to share their activity to Timeline, Ticker and News Feed. As such, Socialcam's huge growth among Facebook-connected users is more likely the result of web viewing than mobile app downloads. Consider that Google Play shows Socialcam has been downloaded between 100,000 and 500,000 times on Android devices. Instagram for Android has been downloaded between 10 million and 50 million times, yet that app is No. 24, according to AppData, with 17.1 million MAU connected to Facebook.

It is important to recognize that Socialcam's rapid rise is largely attributable to Facebook’s Open Graph, which is still in an early experimental phase. As applications take off and users begin sharing more and more stories from them, the social network often has to adjust its News Feed algorithms so that users do not feel inundated by the content. This could be what led to a recent decline among some social reader applications, and it certainly affected social games and other apps in 2010. We expect Facebook to continue to monitor how apps like Socialcam publish to the feed and respond to user feedback and trends.

It is also likely that Socialcam is getting a lot of users to connect with Facebook once, but it is too soon to tell if it can get them to re-engage. Currently the app has 8.2 million daily active users, but many of these could be new users trying the app for the first time, not regular visitors. Socialcam is likely to hit its peak soon, but a decline in MAU should not be viewed immediately as failure. How the app evolves to maintain regular engagement among a sizable percentage of users will be the true test.

Socialcam did not respond to interview requests.

Socialcam, Zoosk, Pinterest, games, more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps by DAU

Posted: 09 May 2012 08:53 AM PDT

Socialcam topped our list of growing Facebook applications by daily active users with 4.4 million new DAU. There were a few other video apps, dating app Zoosk, website integrations, Pinterest, and several games, horoscopes and more.

The titles below grew between 300,000 and 4.4 million DAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering growth for apps on Facebook.

Top Gainers This Week

Name DAU Gain Gain,%
1.   Socialcam 8,300,000 +4,400,000 + 113%
2.   Zoosk 3,900,000 +3,120,000 + 400%
3.   Click Video 2,800,000 +2,060,000 + 278%
4.   Yahoo! Social Bar 4,500,000 +1,700,000 + 61%
5.   Horóscopo Diário 1,700,000 +1,640,000 + 2,733%
6.   9GAG 1,600,000 +1,470,000 + 1,131%
7.   Pinterest 2,500,000 +1,400,000 + 127%
8.   Chill 1,300,000 +990,000 + 319%
9.   Norton Safe Web 850,000 +820,000 + 2,733%
10.   Zynga Game Bar 840,000 +820,000 + 4,100%
11.   Horóscopo do Dia 550,000 +520,000 + 1,733%
12.   Candy Crush Saga 1,800,000 +500,000 + 38%
13.   Mynet 800,000 +500,000 + 167%
14.   Scribd 1,000,000 +440,000 + 79%
15.   Bubble Witch Saga 6,400,000 +400,000 + 7%
16.   Zapkolik 1,200,000 +350,000 + 41%
17.   Mystic Ice Blast 350,000 +320,000 + 1,067%
18.   Daily Horoscope 320,000 +310,000 + 3,100%
19.   Marvel: Avengers Alliance 1,500,000 +300,000 + 25%
20.   Skype 2,700,000 +300,000 + 13%

Socialcam beat out the next-highest app, dating service Zoosk, by more than 1 million DAU. Other video apps, Click Video and Chill, also made the list.

The Yahoo! Social Bar is picking up daily active users again after a temporary dip. The comedic site 9GAG is also growing after a period of decline. A pair of Turkish sites, Mynet and Zapkolik made the list. Then there were three different horoscope apps, in Spanish, Portuguese and English. These apps usually post automatically to the feed once used.

Games were led by the Zynga Game Bar, followed by Candy Crush Saga. Then the Timeline Pinterest app made the list, in addition to a computer security app and file sharing site.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top emerging apps on Friday.

torsdag den 10. maj 2012 at 07.54