Inside Facebook

The local review-sharing site Yelp has added Facebook Connect to allow users to easily share local business reviews with their friends on Facebook.

Yelp allows anyone to submit a review for any local business, from restaurants to shoe stores to mechanics. Once you’ve registered and written a review, you’ll now have the option of using Facebook Connect to post the review to your Facebook page so your friends will see it in their feeds. You can set up an automatic posting feature to pull every review you write over to Facebook, or choose to post only certain reviews.

Facebook Connect has also recently been integrated into other review sites, such as Urbanspoon and Citysearch, and has led to a pronounced jump in activity in the number of reviews, comments, and photos added to these sites.

Citysearch has seen a dramatic increase in registrations since implementing Facebook Connect. The number of daily registrations has tripled since the launch, and 94% of reviewers are sharing their reviews on Facebook. The average review gets 40 views, with 74% of those clicking back to the Citysearch site. Restaurant review site Urbanspoon has experienced similar success. Since adding Facebook Connect in March, 1/3 of the users signing in to the site with their popular iPhone app are doing so through Facebook.

As more review sites add Facebook Connect functinality, Facebook itself is becoming a valuable source for unsolicited, trusted information on local businesses and services. Seeing your friends’ Yelp posts is a great way to learn more about restaurants, stores, and night life around your area. The early success suggests that users are taking advantage of these reviews, and with several different sites, like Urbanspoon and Yelp, integrating with Facebook, you’ll get a larger number of reviews that will allow you to make a more informaed decision on where to spend your money.

The increased use of Facebook Connect also brings more accountability to the restaurants, stores, and shops; any one customer can now more easily spread the good (or bad) word about your business throughout their entire network of friends, so there’s more incentive to offer a good product and excellent customer service.

It’s been just under 90 days since Facebook announced it has crossed the 200 million active user mark. Today, that number is somewhere around 240 million, perhaps even close to 250 million. If Facebook were a country, it would now have the 4th largest population in the world.

While Facebook has been growing at around 300,00 to 400,000 active users per day for most of the last three quarters, its growth rate seems to have again significantly increased in recent weeks to around 700,000 to 750,000 new users per day based on data we are tracking from Facebook’s advertising tools.

If Facebook continues at this rate, it could reach 300 million active users by November. Keep in mind, however, that as has been the case for most of the last year, about 70% of that growth is happening outside the United States. Nevertheless, Facebook still grew at an 8% monthly clip in the US in May, up to nearly 70 million active users today.

In addition, Facebook has recently released updated engagement stats about the way users interact with different features on the site. Some highlights:

• 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day (13 million did per month at the beginning of the year)
• 8 million users become fans of Pages each day (up from 2.5 million per day at the beginning of the year)
• 10 million videos are uploaded each month (up from 4 million)
• 900 million photos are uploaded to the site each month (up from 700 million)
• 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each week (up from 15 million per month)
• 35 million active groups exist on the site (up from 19 million)
• 2.5 million notes created each month
• 30 million users access Facebook each month through a mobile device

In other words, Facebook’s growth does not appear to be slowing down yet, and engagement is still on the rise.

We’ll of course continue tracking all the latest Facebook stats for you here on Inside Facebook. To dive deeper on how you can engage Facebook’s 240 million users through Facebook Pages, Facebook advertising solutions, Facebook Platform applications, or Facebook Connect for your website, check out Inside Facebook’s Facebook Marketing Bible.

Although Facebook is publishing some of its own Facebook Connect widgets like the Live Stream widget and the Comments Box widget to help websites be more social, major widget platforms themselves are starting to integrate Facebook Connect in their own more specialized products.

Just a few days ago, widget platform Widgetbox soft launched Facebook Connect in a compelling integration that allows users to publish widgets to the News Feed. Widgetbox’s VP Marketing & Business Development Ryan Spoon says the company’s widgets reach 100 million uniques every month, but only 1% of those come through Facebook. With the recent release of Connect, the company is making efforts to change that.

Here’s an example of what the integration looks like:

1. You can sign in to Widgetbox.com using your Facebook account.

2. When you add a widget or rate and comment on a widget, you can publish these stories to your Wall and the News Feed.

3. If the widget you share is Flash-based, it should be functional within the Facebook News Feed. Most widgets come with a play button expands and plays the widget in-line in the stream. If the widget is written in Javascript, it appears in the Feed as a regular story. Widgetbox is trying to consolidate these types of stories - a challenge with the evolving Connect API’s.

The next step for Widgetbox is to enhance its Connect integration by bringing Facebook’s social graph to the site and make widget recommendations to its users based on what their friends have added. While the company is focusing its Connect efforts on the News Feed, the technology is also there to add Widgetbox widgets inside applications, especially in the context of games, Spoon explained.

Conclusion

Typically, widgets are added to sites like blogs that are more static, and so users can count on the widget being there the next time they need it. With Widgetbox’s Facebook integration, there seems to be a higher risk of users publishing content that flows off the first page of the stream in a matter of hours.

Nevertheless, widget makers are still trying to get distribution wherever they can inside Facebook since Facebook more or less booted widget-like profile boxes off user profile pages with the redesign last year (however, users can still add small application boxes and tabs to their profile). We’re looking forward to watching Widgetbox iterate on its Facebook Connect integration in the months ahead.

While Facebook has over 230 million active users and has been rapidly growing around the world in the last 24 months, Orkut, the social network run by Google, has remained dominant in Brazil and India. Although Facebook has grown slowly in those two countries, it’s never been able to turn the corner - until now.

Starting about 60 days ago, Facebook’s growth began accelerating rapidly in both Brazil and India, growing several times faster in May and June than it did in March and April.

In fact, Facebook nearly doubled in Brazil during May alone. Its growth has continued in June, and today Facebook has just crossed the 1 million active user mark in Brazil for the first time ever - up 100% in the last 45 days.

Granted, Orkut still claims well over 20 million monthly visitors in Brazil, but we’ve seen this kind of pattern before. Facebook has the potential to double in new countries every 2-3 months several times over as it spreads through new populations, but it is probably still too early to claim that this is the canary in the coal mine for Orkut.

Curiously, however, just as Facebook started exploding in Brazil, the same thing was happening in India, the other major country where Orkut is the leading social network with 13 million monthly active users.

While Facebook has been growing slowly and steadily in India for the last couple of years, Facebook exploded in May and June, doubling from 1.6 million to 3.2 million monthly active users in the country in the last 60 days.

Do these trends correlate? Time will tell, but it certainly looks like Facebook is gaining significant steam in Orkut’s biggest strongholds.

Brazil and India are far from the only countries where Facebook is fighting to claw its way to the top spot. Nevertheless, Facebook continues to grow in almost every country we’re tracking the company in - and in most countries, by double digit percentages in total reach every month. Facebook is clearly a global phenomenon - it will be very interesting to see where things stand in another year.

Note: All data from Facebook’s advertiser tools.

Purchase this report The Facebook Global Monitor - Current Edition Buy PDF: $99 USD OR Buy 6 Month Subscription: $395 USD

Today, Inside Facebook has released the July 2009 edition of the Facebook Global Monitor - tracking Facebook’s growth in global markets. The Facebook Global Monitor tracks Facebook’s international growth for marketers, developers, and analysts to spot trends and opportunities. A few highlights from the June report’s findings:

• Facebook’s reach grew by 35% in Brazil during the last 30 days - Orkut’s home turf - to over 1 million monthly active users. Facebook also grew by 37% in India during June - the number of Facebook users in India has doubled in the last 90 days.
• Facebook crossed the 10 million active user mark in Italy last week. Over 17% of all people in Italy are now active on Facebook every month.
• The number of Facebook users in China grew by 60% last month. While the total number of active Facebook users in the country is still miniscule, is this a sign of growth starting to happen?

The Facebook Global Monitor is a premium service and newsletter produced by Inside Facebook that provides vital data and insight to media industry executives, global marketing and communications firms, analysts, and developers for whom Facebook’s rapid international expansion poses significant opportunities or threats.

For those interested in learning more, click the purchase link above. The price is $99 per issue, or $395 for a six month subscription. Future monthly updates will be delivered directly to your inbox. As always, please make suggestions if you’d like to see more attention paid to any topic. (Custom reports are also available.) You can reach us at mail AT insidefacebook DOT com with questions at any time.

Each month, the Facebook Global Monitor provides the latest comprehensive data on the expansion of Facebook’s audience in nearly 100 global markets. In addition, the Monitor provides alerts on breakout and cooling markets, as well as our latest in-house projections on Facebook’s growth in each country 30 days, 90 days, and 12 months into the future.

See the full table of contents of the first newsletter below. All reports are based on primary research by Inside Facebook using data from Facebook, and each section is designed to elucidate key actionable trends.

We believe big opportunities exist for developers and marketers to reach and engage the Facebook audience in these rapidly emerging and expanding markets. Cheers to continued growth in 2009!

The Facebook Global Monitor

Tracking Facebook in Global Markets

July 2009

Contents

I. Introduction: The Year That Facebook Went Global

II. Global Market Report

1. Audience Size Today

2. Fastest Growing Audience

• Last 12 months
• Last 90 days
• Last 30 days

3. Market Penetration Today

4. Largest Market Penetration Increases

• Last 12 months
• Last 90 days
• Last 30 days

III. Emerging Market Analysis

1. Growth Projections

• Next 30 days
• Next 90 days
• Next 12 months

2. Technical Alerts

• Breakout Markets: Last 90 Days
• Cooling Markets: Last 90 Days

IV. Regional Summaries

1. Africa

2. Asia / Pacific

3. Europe

4. North America

5. South America

V. Country Updates

1. Argentina

2. Australia

3. Austria

4. Bahamas

5. Bahrain

6. Bangladesh

7. Belgium

8. Bolivia

9. Bosnia & Herzegovina

10. Brazil

11. Bulgaria

12. Canada

13. Chile

14. China

15. Colombia

16. Costa Rica

17. Croatia

18. Cyprus

19. Czech Republic

20. Denmark

21. Dominican Republic

22. Ecuador

23. Egypt

24. El Salvador

25. Finland

26. France

27. Germany

28. Ghana

29. Greece

30. Guatemala

31. Honduras

32. Hong Kong

33. Hungary

34. Iceland

35. India

36. Indonesia

37. Ireland

38. Israel

39. Italy

40. Jamaica

41. Japan

42. Jordan

43. Kenya

44. Kuwait

45. Lebanon

46. Lithuania

47. Luxembourg

48. Macedonia

49. Malaysia

50. Maldives

51. Malta

52. Mauritius

53. Mexico

54. Morocco

55. Netherlands

56. New Zealand

57. Nicaragua

58. Nigeria

59. Norway

60. Oman

61. Pakistan

62. Palestine

63. Panama

64. Paraguay

65. Peru

66. Philippines

67. Poland

68. Portugal

69. Puerto Rico

70. Qatar

71. Romania

72. Russia

73. Saudi Arabia

74. Serbia

75. Singapore

76. Slovakia

77. Slovenia

Purchase this report The Facebook Global Monitor - Current Edition Buy PDF: $99 USD OR Buy 6 Month Subscription: $395 USD

78. South Africa

79. South Korea

80. Spain

81. Sri Lanka

82. Sweden

83. Switzerland

84. Taiwan

85. Thailand

86. Trinidad and Tobago

87. Tunisia

88. Turkey

89. Ukraine

90. United Arab Emirates

91. United Kingdom

92. United States

93. Uruguay

94. Venezuela

95. Vietnam

Footnotes & Methodology

This year, winners of Facebook’s fbFund competition are spending the summer in Palo Alto as part of the REV summer incubator program. Organized by Facebook and Founders Fund investor Dave McClure, participants have gotten the chance to hear from experienced startup and Facebook Platform entrepreneurs, like Jia Shen from RockYou, Keith Rabois from Slide, and Eric Ries, formerly of IMVU.

We recently visited the fbFund REV incubator in Facebook’s old offices in downtown Palo Alto and sat down with a couple more of this year’s winners to hear about their ideas and what they’re working on this summer. The 20 or so teams (including some of the previous year’s winners) are scattered across a few floors, with collaborative space for brainstorming, guest talks, and meetings. Eric Ries shared his thoughts on “The Lean Startup” before we spoke with fbFund entrepreneurs Suzanne Xie and Rich Tong of Weardrobe and Waleed Abdulla of Networked Blogs.

Weardrobe

Weardrobe is a fashion community for people to share what they wear. Users post photos of themselves modeling how they’ve chosen to mix and match different articles of clothing and most importantly tag them. The sum of all these tagged photos is a searchable online closet that users can tap into for fashion inspiration.

“It’s not about what people wear, but how they wear it,” Xie says.

The Weardrobe project started about a year ago, and the site has been up for about six months. In college, lack of closet space prompted Suzanne to create an Excel spreadsheet of her clothing items. Organized by style, brand, color, etc., the tool was intended to be able to sort items and, thus, help her not waste clothing. She showed the tool to Rich, and the two realized that there was a better way to efficiently map one’s closet.

This summer the Weardrobe team will be working on a Facebook Connect integration, which will allow users to login to the site using their Facebook accounts, see which Facebook friends are also Weardrobe users, and be able to publish content back to the News Feed.

Another next step for the team will be involving fashion brands, many of which are discovering that TV or magazine advertising isn’t as effective anymore. Weardrobe has already partnered with Urban Outfitters in a Netflix-style initiative: Urban Outfitters donated clothing to Weardrobe, and Weardrobe sent them to its users who styled them up, posted photos on the site, and mailed them back.

Networked Blogs

We also spoke with Waleed Abdulla at Networked Blogs. Within the Networked Blogs Facebook application, users can search for blogs they read and follow them via Networked Blogs. Features include a News Feed of recent posts from the blogs you follow, a Most Voted tab where users can vote for blogs they like, as well as tabs that showcase what your Facebook friends are reading and posting. The idea was born out of a hackathon event in February 2008 called Weekend Apps and has since then taken off.

Networked Blogs’s Facebook Connect implementation is compelling and different than most we’ve seen so far. Bloggers can add a Networked Blogs widget on their blogs, which links back to its Facebook app. On the Networked Blogs website, which is less interactive than the app and more like a directory of blogs (currently 190,000 blogs) Waleed notes, Connect is also used for authentication and sharing.

Another feature that is useful for blogs that own their own Facebook Page is that you can manually or automatically import posts to the page’s Wall via Networked Blogs. Comments made through the app and the Wall are synced.

As the fbFund continues throughout the summer, we’ll be bringing you more looks at fbFund companies that are using Facebook and Facebook Connect to make the web more social.

Grassroots Enterprises, a communications technology firm based in Washington, DC, has developed a new application for Facebook Pages that allows fans to send letters to legislators. The “Take Action” app can be set to send communications to political officials, news agencies, or special commissions.

After using the “Take Action” feature to send a letter, users then have the option of forwarding their action to friends to display in their feeds. Once individuals find an organization they wish to support, they can contact their local or federal official without ever having to leave Facebook. When applicable, Take Action matches users to their respective local officials based on their profile information.

Organizations will be able to link to their Take Action page through a unique URL for placement in news releases, blogs, or associated sites. Once users take advantage of the service, page owners will be able to capture their registration information for future email campaigns and associated political actions.

The app is another example of how marketers are using Facebook Pages to recruit people to become more active in the causes they support. By taking out the extra steps associated with contacting a state or federal legislator, Take Action is promoting more interaction between Fans and Facebook pages.

So far, early adopters of the service are seeing positive reaction from their fans. Two pages currently using Take Action, a page promoting a seventh NHL team for Canada and a page petitioning for the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme court, are seeing conversion rates between 35-45%.

Last week, the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, died unexpectedly at age 50. Now, the Michael Jackson Facebook Page is the #1 fastest growing Page on Facebook, according to PageData. Over 1.7 million fans have joined the Page in the last week, bringing the total number of fans to nearly 2.5 million.

Fans from around the world are leaving Wall posts in honor of the legendary music icon and uploading new photos to the page. The page’s new profile picture reads: His music will live forever.

Today alone, the page added over 550,000 fans. Fans have been joining at a rate of several hundred thousand per day since Friday.

Since Michael Jackson’s passing on Thursday, other Facebook Pages have been created to commemorate his life and music, including R.I.P Michael Jackson (We Miss You) (2.1 million fans) and Michael Jackson RIP (577,172 fans), with the former aiming to make itself the biggest page in history - an interesting phenomenon to watch.

While Facebook Pages are effective and attractive tools for big brand and celebrities to reach their audiences, what happens when celebrities pass away, and there are no longer events and promotions to tell fans about? How long into the future will the administrators and fans of these popular public profiles still be generating content?

However, right now, it’s obvious that as much as Facebook Pages have been marketed and positioned as tools for official advertisers, in these last several days at least, they are being used to rally a different kind of support: one that is less commercial and more emotionally expressive.

Sponsoring established Facebook applications with large audiences continues to be a powerful way for brands to market inside Facebook. In fact, we reviewed several such campaigns from BMW, U2, and St. Martin’s Press in our recently released Best and Worst of Facebook Marketing 2009 report.

The latest interesting example comes from Kimberly-Clark, who has teamed up with Circle of  Moms, a large community of moms built on Facebook and Facebook Connect, to promote Huggies brand baby diapers. The integration brings Huggies’ Enjoy The Ride program to members of Circle of Moms, with special rewards codes, expert advice, polls, and mom-to-mom tips. 36,000 Moms took Huggies-branded polls, and there have been more than 61,000 forum posts to date.

According to AppData, Circle of Moms has a monthly active membership of nearly 1.5 million users, connecting Facebook moms through specialized groups, with moms sharing stories, advice, and doctor recommendations. The application was launched in October 2008, and doesn’t allow any males (or at least anyone who says they’re male on their Facebook profile) into the community.

The Enjoy the Ride rewards program targets new moms, with age-specific diaper advice, forums, a reward points program, and the chance to win free diapers for a year. You can access the program, which is also being promoted on the Huggies Facebook Page, through the Huggies Zone inside Circle of Moms.

Appssavvy and Mindshare brought Huggies and Circle of Moms together.

“We are very proud of the incredible community the millions of moms have created through Circle of Moms,” said Ephraim Luft, CEO of Circle of Moms. “Huggies is the exact type of brand our partnership with appssavvy is designed to engage with Circle of Moms. Its rewards program, added-value content and expertise simply improve the community and enable a leading brand and its tgarget audience to connect in positive ways.”

Huggies will increase its exposure on Facebook dramatically with the new partnership, injecting its brand directly into the sightline of its target demographic.

Since the Facebook Platform launched two years ago, Facebook has taken a relatively open approach to third parties interested in building advertising networks on the Platform. One of the companies that has been active on Facebook ever since the Platform launched is Washington, DC-based SocialCash, which has now entirely focused its efforts on Facebook. We recently spoke with SocialCash CEO Rob Jewell about the current state of the market, the recent Facebook policy enforcement actions that were taken against other Facebook Platform ad networks, and SocialCash’s plans going forward.

Inside Facebook: SocialCash got its start on Facebook building both an advertising network and an offer network, but now you’re focused just on your ad network. Why?

Rob Jewell: When we looked at the macro picture of all social networking inventory and all the available social information, we just saw a bigger opportunity over existing ad networks to use the social information across all inventory. We had to choose - it’s a massive opportunity, but it takes a lot of focus.

What products are working best for you right now?

Our main product is the headliners unit, which can be integrated in any Facebook app. From a technical perspective, it’s built more like a developer tool than an ad. We’re leveraging CPA advertiser relationships that we’ve had for a long time to create innovative ads, using dynamic social information to increase performance.

What are some good examples where you’ve seen performance increases?

Zoosk is a good example - it’s the biggest dating app on Facebook. We can do things like, “Tired of being a bridesmaid?” in ads, and show the person all their friends who are married, and that creates a pretty relevant and eganging ad that gets them thinking they should add Zoosk. We can also choose the best same-sex friends and put them in the ad. It really brings it home that it’s relevant and higher engagement.

We can also do stuff with education - for example, we can show you any of your friends that have jobs listed, show you what they are doing, and ask you if you want to advance in your career. We do this with the University of Phoenix. We can also see what students’ concentrations are, so for example if you recently changed your degree, we can show you what your friends are studying. It creates that sense of engagement around, “Why am I going down the path of being a lawyer?” As we get the targeting down, we can do more things like pulling in your favorite movies, and giving you the opportunity to stream now with Netflix. Some of these are in production now.

How many publishers are in your network?

We’ve got about 100 active ones across a variety of types of applications - gaming, gifting, quizzes, dating. Some of the largest are LivingSocial, FamilyLink, and Zwigglers.

How do things split out internationally?

70% of our impressions and 50% of our revenues are international. A lot of the efforts in the space now are focused on agencies and brands, but typically those dollars trickle in on a massive amount of inventory, and our efforts are to take the rest of that inventory and maximize it. We have infrastructure in all countries.

Is most banner advertising inventory CPA at this point?

I think CPA is majority of the banner advertising on the platform, but I think overall it’s probably less than the total virtual currency market. There’s still a lot of innovation happening, and things change significantly every month, especially due to regulations Facebook could put in as well.

How have Facebook’s recent suspensions of SocialReach and SocialHour affected you?

It really clears the path for innovation and for new advertisers. We’ve always been inside Facebook’s terms, and they’re really just enforcing the terms that have been around for a while.

We wanted to align the company with Facebook from the start. It’s no surprise that they enforced what they set out to do at some point. We think it will be good both for us and the platform in the long run, by keeping the playing field equal.

Do you think Facebook has successfully enforced Platform policies?

Yes, they have done a good job. However, it can’t be a one time thing - it has to be consistent to make sure everyone is playing by the rules. They have to be committed to doing that.

I don’t want to speak for them, but I think they also see the opportunity to increase the innovation that goes into the space by doing that. They’re very clear that a good user experience is their top priority.

Did you learn anything from your recent conversations with Facebook regarding the policy enforcements?

That they meant what they said. It’s as simple as that. Some people tried to call their bluff and others actually reacted to it and made the changes that they wanted to make.

Facebook has also started testing its in-house ad network this year. What have they told you about it?

I think that Facebook will always want to have third parties innovating social advertising on Facebook. They’ve told me that they encourage third parties to help innovate on the platform. It would be a massive shift from their overall philosophy if they were to say you have to use our ad network. It would put too much burden and risk on them to deliver what developers need and would stifle innovation, and it doesn’t seem like they’d want to do that.

What’s coming up next for SocialCash?

More diverse ads, higher CPMs, improved relevancy, more and deeper social content, more ad unit sizes. We feel like we’re still pretty early on in the process.

Thanks Rob. Any final thoughts?

I think it’s interesting that there haven’t been any of the larger ad networks like Advertising.com, Specific Media, or Right Media making a play inside Facebook. It’s obviously a large opportunity, I think it makes sense that they aren’t doing it because it’s a totally unique kind of creative and set of data you’re working with.

As the inventory grows and the open movement gets bigger and bigger and Facebook Connect takes off, I would think there’s going to be a big play there at some point for one of the bigger ad networks. But even Google hasn’t cracked the code on how to monetize social network traffic - it’s a paradigm shift for almost any ad network, and that puts us and any other ad network working on this at an advantage. Besides, they’ve got hugely successful business already, and they can probably barely keep up with growth on the rest of the internet.