Inside Facebook

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.

Facebook is holding a press call this morning on the future of privacy. Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer, and Leah Perlman, Product manager, are going to be sharing updates on upcoming Facebook privacy enhancements. The new updates, which simplify the privacy controls on Facebook, will be rolling out in the next few weeks. Here are detailed notes and screenshots from this morning’s preview:

- Chris Kelly: We want to make sure we don’t create too many settings and too much complexity, to give people the power to share information as broadly or privately as they want over time. There was a rumor a while ago that Facebook is going to start charging for Facebook, and this is not the case. This also doesn’t have anything to do with advertising - as I testified before the house recently, we’re giving people control over the information that they’re choosing to share.

- Leah Perlman: Currently, the publisher privacy tests that we started running last week are proving quite effective. The new publisher allows for different types of sharing that we haven’t been able to support before. Sometimes you want to share more privately or in a more targeted way - for example, posting something just for my family to see.

- Leah Perlman: We’re also planning to remove regional networks. When Facebook started, networks were the bedrock for privacy. But when we expanded past college and work networks to regional networks to fit everyone, it actually created some confusion around privacy controls as it relates to regional networks. 50% of users don’t even join regional networks.

- Leah Perlman: Now, users will have the same privacy control to put on any piece of content on the site. The same 4 or 5 options:

1. Everyone
2. Friends and Networks (good for sharing photos of friends, so their friends can see them)
3. Friends of Friends
4. Friends Only
5. Custom (can choose a combination of networks and friend lists, and exclude particular people)

- Leah Perlman: Here’s what the new unified privacy page will look like. The lock icon will behave the same everywhere it appears.

- Leah Perlman: We’re going to be offering people a transition tool. It has 2 purposes: 1) To make sure everyone understands the changes that are going to be happening on the site. 2) To make it clear that if you open up access to content that you share it can make your experience of finding and interacting with friends richer. We’re testing different versions of this tool now. There will be 3 main options:

1. Open - people like bloggers or photographers who really want to be open.
2. Limited - those who only want to share with a limited number of people.
3. Recommended - this strikes a balance to help people make the appropriate information shared openly and privately.

Transition Tool 1:

Transition Tool 2:

- Leah Perlman: No matter what options people choose, everyone will see this privacy confirmation screen. We want to make sure that everyone is setting things exactly as they want them.

- Chris Kelly: The transition tool offers a powerful opt-in to let users make their choices. We think this degree of control is where the web is going.

- Question: if I set content to public, will it be indexable my major search engines?

- Leah Perlman: Not at this time, no.

- Elliot Schrage: We are not providing it in the broadest possible way at rollout, but we want people to be sensitive to that possibility, so we are rolling it out in this way to see what feedback we get.

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.

Members of the online marketplace oDesk now have another means of connecting to potential job contracts with the addition of Facebook Connect to the oDesk web site. One of the largest online marketplaces for freelancers and small businesses, oDesk matches writers, developers, graphic artists, marketing professionals and more from all over the world with buyers looking for their services.

Rolling Facebook connectivity into the already comprehensive matching methods makes it easier for potential buyers to find professionals in their Facebook network. For those providing service, it’s a way to post skills and work examples, as well as build their network of employers and other freelancers whose work can complement their own.

“The ability to leverage social media to uncover new opportunities is key to success in this difficult economy,” said Gary Swart, oDesk CEO. “oDesk has always been committed to enabling successful online work relationships, and now — through the use of Facebook Connect — oDesk users can rely on their existing Facebook friends and colleagues to connect them with timely, relevant opportunities and potential job candidates.”

Companies are looking more and more towards this type of service to fill their needs, as it is a cheaper alternative to employing full-time creative teams. Many of these companies are looking to social media sites, like Facebook and LinkedIn, to find talent. The Facebook Connect integration will be a way for freelancers to tap into an established network of potential employers, and vice versa.

Utilizing Facebook also allows for a more familiar interaction — buyers and providers can finding each other through a network that is more social than commercial can lead to stronger working relationships, as there is already an certain level of communication and familiarity between the two. If each party is comfortable in the work relationship and has more communication, jobs can be handled with more efficiency, and will usually have a higher caliber end product.

TV.com has just launched Facebook Connect integration, making it easier for Facebook users to share content with their friends. It’s a relatively simple integration - now, any comments you make on the site’s full episodes, clips, news stories, and forums can be published back to your Wall and the News Feed.

Facebook is increasingly working on partnerships with the TV industry this year. In the fall of 2008, CBS’s celebrity gossip site TheInsider.com was one of the first launch partners to go live with Facebook Connect. Just recently, Facebook announced a new Live Stream widget that allows networks (or any publisher) to stream video alongside friends’ Facebook status updates in real time.

For publishers, Facebook is showing early signs of becoming an increasingly important traffic driver for online video sites. Back in March, Facebook drove more traffic to PerezHilton.com than Google. Recently, YouTube has even begun experimenting with Connect with the Green Eyed World campaign by Coke Europe and a more substantial integration when uploading videos earlier this month. Joost and Vimeo have also been live with Connect since late last year.

Here’s how the integration looks:

1. Look for the Facebook Connect button at the top right of the site and login using your Facebook account. If you already have an account with Tv.com, then you can link it with your Facebook account, too.

2. Once signed in, any comments you make on the site’s news stories, videos, and forums can be published back to your Wall and the News Feed. Notice the “Publish to Facebook” option at the bottom right.

3. And log out when you’re done.

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.