Inside Facebook

We’ve heard a lot of people say the iPhone’s built-in support for YouTube video uploading is going to make a huge impact on the number of people posting videos online. That number could grow even more now that Facebook’s upcoming Facebook for iPhone 3.0 app is going to include video uploads - especially amongst people who want to easily post their videos online for friends and family to see, but not the general public.

Joe Hewitt, the lead engineer on Facebook’s iPhone app, says, “3GS video uploading for the Facebook iPhone app is a go — didn’t plan to include it in the 3.0 update, but it was really easy to code.”

Developers and marketers should prepare for many more user-generated videos shuffling around the Facebook ecosystem in the coming months.

In addition to including video uploads for iPhone 3GS users, Facebook for iPhone 3.0 will include the “new” News Feed, Events Likes, Notes, Pages, a new home page, and a variety of other features. However, Push Notifications, which are in high demand, will be included in Version 3.1 later this summer, Hewitt says. A release date has not been announced.

Live streaming on Facebook is now more affordable for smal businesses and individuals thanks to StreamAPI, a new product from live-streaming company Stickam. StreamAPI is built around Facebook’s Live Stream widget, which was recently opened up to anyone wanting to add a dynamic stream of Facebook status updates around live events on their website.

StreamAPI is slightly different from the currently available service from Ustream, which has been used in many of the live streaming events to date but has setup costs as high as $15,000. With StreamAPI, there is no set up or monthly fee; instead, users pay 45 cents per gigabyte. There’s support for HD video as well. Stickam has plenty of experience with live online video, providing its service to stream content for MTV, CBS Radio, and G4TV, amongst others.

New services like StreamAPI reflect the increasing interest amongst web video publishers for the social context that Facebook Connect brings around live events. New products and pricing models like this one are opening up the market to a larger variety of long tail publishers.

As Inside Facebook reported last month, Facebook is in the process of migrating away from regional networks on the site (they were only ever used by 50% of users anyway, and created some unintended privacy confusion). As a result, network affiliations are being migrated to the Info tab on user profiles as users’ current locations.

For developers, Facebook says that these changes will eventually be reflected in their API. If your application currently makes use of regional networks, you have until September 30, 2009, to make the official change to use the current_location field instead of network affiliations.

This process isn’t without its quirks, however. As pointed out on the Developer’s Forums, the new user-defined city field could be less useful than regional networks as it will likely actually create more segmentation. Any attempt to group like cities together would be at the expense of the application developer.

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.

Facebook’s iPhone application is one of the most popular iPhone apps overall - nearly 25% of all iPhone owners use it according to Joe Hewitt, lead engineer for Facebook’s iPhone application. Today, Hewitt shared some more details on the upcoming version 3.0 of the Facebook iPhone app.

What will be coming in the new version?

1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

The new home screen will definitely make for a friendlier user experience, especially with the addition of Events, Notes, Pages, and photo albums. The addition of the Pages feature means that brands with Facebook Pages will have increased visibility when users are on the go.

While Hewitt said he didn’t know when the app will be submitted to Apple, it is about “98% done.” However, Push Notifications, which are in high demand, will be included in Version 3.1 later this summer, Hewitt says.

On the first official day of Q3 2009, which established apps are still growing the most quickly? Here are the numbers from AppData on today’s fastest growing applications on Facebook in the 1 million to 10 million MAU category.

Currently taking the #1 spot is FARKLE, an addictive dice game developed by Facebook app shop Viral, s.r.o. For each game, users roll dice 10 times and try to maximize their scores by following the game’s scoring rules. As you play, chips are earned along the way. They can also be earned by inviting your Facebook friends to play the game, sending your friends who are also users of the app a gift, and/or completing offers on the app’s offer wall.

		Name	MAU	Gain	%	Developer
1.		FARKLE	2,096,924	+197,165	+10.4	Viral, s.r.o.
2.		Barn Buddy	3,188,649	+167,087	+5.5	TheBroth, Inc.
3.		Waka-Waka	3,109,541	+120,994	+4.1	Metrogames
4.		Restaurant City	5,861,728	+106,605	+1.9	Playfish
5.		Biotronic	3,398,277	+101,750	+3.1	Metrogames
6.		UNO™ BETA	1,858,228	+100,639	+5.7	GameHouse
7.		Do you really know me?	1,865,635	+57,851	+3.2	How well do you know me
8.		Know-It-All Trivia	3,707,469	+57,736	+1.6	CrowdStar
9.		YoVille	7,857,944	+44,582	+0.6	Zynga
10.		Street Racing	2,904,532	+43,082	+1.5	Zynga
11.		Bejeweled Blitz	4,404,078	+35,434	+0.8	Popcap Games
12.		Fortune Products	3,504,943	+31,957	+0.9	QuoteMountain.com
13.		Daily Horoscope	4,152,067	+28,981	+0.7	6 waves
14.		Tattoodle	1,262,829	+25,777	+2.1	Make The Web Better
15.		Are YOU Interested?	2,640,198	+23,095	+0.9	SNAP Interactive (Ticker: STVI)
16.		Is Cool by cafe.com	2,221,961	+19,652	+0.9	Cafe.com
17.		Geo Challenge	3,695,910	+19,336	+0.5	Playfish
18.		All About Me	1,436,420	+18,857	+1.3	Lih Chen
19.		SuperPoke! Pets	1,348,700	+17,474	+1.3	Slide, Inc.
20.		Rock Legends!	1,061,607	+17,192	+1.7	Serious Business

FARKLE’s approach to incentivizing friends with the app pushes the boundaries of Facebook’s platform incentivization rules. About a year ago, the Facebook Platform team prohibited incentivized invites within apps - a policy designed to increase the quality of messages sent to users via apps.

Also in the Top 5 are Barn Buddy (TheBroth, Inc.), and verified apps Waka-Waka (Metrogames), Restaurant City (Playfish), and  Biotronic (Metrogames again). The top five spots are all taken by social games, and it’s notable that three out of the five apps are verified apps - one indication that apps in the Application Verification Program are enjoying the benefits of increased prominence.

Do you really know me? and All About Me have also earned places in the Top 20, consistent with numbers from last month showing that simple quizzing apps are continuing to see some pretty viral growth.

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.

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%.