Inside Facebook

While Facebook’s battle with StudiVZ in Germany rages on, the company is doing something to build the German Facebook Platform developer community that it hasn’t done in any other country: hold a rich contest to see who can build the biggest Facebook applications.

Facebook announced the winners of the Facebook German Application Contest yesterday. The rules were simple: see who can get the most users “actively using each Application in the German language over a one month period following the Closing Date.”

And the winners are…

1. Grand Prize (€20000): Doodle - a tool for group event coordination.
2. Second Prize (€10000): iPersonic Persönlichkeitstest - a personality test.
3. Third Prize (€5000): Schnick, Schnack, Schnuck - German version of rock, paper, scissors.
4. Fourth Prize (€3000): Fussball-Bundesliga - lets you display your favorite German soccer club on your profile.
5. Fifth Prize (€2000): Biergarten - users can send other users pretzels, beer, sausages, schnitzel, etc.

Clearly, Facebook is stepping up its marketing efforts in Germany. Just yesterday, the company launched another promotion around stories of using Facebook for Good in Germany. We’ll be watching closely whether Facebook’s efforts earn it a stronger foothold in the country.