Inside Facebook

In a continuing Q&A series with the winners of fbFund’s $250k second round of funding, Inside Facebook recently talked with Victoria Ransom, creator of the WildFire application.

Victoria shed light on WildFire’s strategies for success and highlighted the rise of advertising on Facebook. See our recent coverage for more background on changes in brand marketing inside social applications on Facebook.

Below, Victoria discusses how WildFire grew its business and handled marketing campaigns for giants like Pepsi, Amazon, and RedBull.

Q:  What problem does Wildfire Promotion Builder solve and what inspired you to start this business?

A:  Wildfire Promotion Builder provides a turnkey solution for companies (both big and small) to easily create and distribute their own branded interactive promotions (e.g. sweepstakes, user-generated contests, coupons and giveaways), and to simultaneously publish them on their website and throughout the social web. Interactive promotions are one of the most effective ways for companies to engage social network users (according to Jupiter Research, companies that run contests have twice as many social network fans as those that don’t) yet the majority of companies that advertise sweepstakes and contests on Facebook drive users outside of Facebook to engage with their promotion and thus fail to take advantage of the true power of Facebook - the social features like friend invites, activity feeds and notifications that can spread the word about promotions and companies virally.

Currently, companies wishing to integrate a promotion with Facebook’s social features need to create their own custom Facebook application - something that is beyond the resources and expertise of most companies. Wildfire Promotion Builder solves this problem by enabling companies to create their own branded interactive promotions within a matter of minutes and at a cost that’s affordable for even the smallest businesses.

Our inspiration for Wildfire Promotion Builder came from our own need. Looking for a way to promote our adventure travel company, Access Travel Ltd, to social network users, we decided to give away a free trip on Facebook. But when we searched for a way to run a sweepstakes that tapped into Facebook’s viral features we found that no easy solution existed and that we would have to build our own sweepstakes application. When other companies expressed interest in using our application, we realized that an opportunity existed to help organizations run interactive promotions on social networks and Wildfire Promotion Builder was born.

Q: A lot of the fbFund entrepreneurs that we’ve been talking with have MBAs.  Do you think that the knowledge that you and your cofounder have gained from business school has been critical?

A:  The knowledge we gained from our MBAs has certainly helped us with the development of our business, particularly with regard to developing our business model, pricing, and go-to-market strategy. The credibility and contacts we gained from our MBAs have also been helpful. Nevertheless, I do not think that having an MBA is critical to building a successful app company.

Q: What do you think made your app successful in the fbFund competition?

A:  The variety of ideas and depth of talent represented by the 25 finalists was really impressive; we were honored to be among them. In the end, I think our app stood out because we’ve focused on developing tools that will help businesses connect with Facebook users in a way that’s entertaining and beneficial to users. Despite the fact that thousands of businesses have created Facebook pages, very few app developers have focused on building apps that can be useful to businesses. I think this, coupled with our strong team, proven business model and track of record of delivering results for our clients helped us to be successful.

Q: What methods did you employ to gain traction among Facebook users and to market your app?  Is this what you would recommend to the next generation of fbFund applicants?

A:  Marketing our app requires quite a different approach than that taken by most app developers because our main focus is to attract businesses rather than consumers. We’ve used a combination of partnerships, PR, and direct sales to reach out to businesses. So far, word of mouth is proving to be one of the most effective ways for us to get the word out.

Q: Finally, Inside Facebook has written recently about the growing number of international Facebook users as well as international Platform growth.  We’ve also seen comments on the developer forum asking about advertising and metrics in other countries.  What is Wildfire Promotion Builder doing to help brands engage with the international community on Facebook?

A:  A number of the promotions that have run via our apps have targeted non-US audiences (including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and New Zealand). To facilitate this, we enable companies to limit eligibility to their promotions according to geography. We’ve also translated our apps into French, Spanish and German and have more languages on the way.

Thanks Victoria, and good luck!

As very close followers of Facebook’s growth and metrics, we at Inside Facebook have been absolutely astounded by Facebook’s international growth in 2008. While Facebook’s international audience totaled 34 million people at the beginning of 2008, on the first day of 2009 that number had increased to 95 million - nearly 70% of the total Facebook audience.

For example, take a look at how Facebook grew in some countries around the world last year: Italy up 2900%, Spain up 600%, France up 400%, Switzerland up 400%, Argentina up 2000%, and Indonesia up by 600%.

What’s more is that dozens of these markets are still growing at double digit rates every month - and for many, those growth rates are increasing. Facebook’s growth rate accelerated by at least 25% in 47 countries in Q4 2008 over Q3. Its quarterly growth rate more than doubled in 28 of those countries in Q4.

As of the beginning of 2009, Facebook now reaches over 10% of the national population in 26 countries. And in December alone, there were 20 countries in which at least 1% of the total national population joined Facebook. Now translated into over 100 languages, Facebook has shown that it can penetrate nearly one third of the entire national population in multiple developed markets, and we expect this to be true of many more countries in the near future.

Purchase this report The Facebook Global Market Monitor - January 2009 Edition Buy PDF: $99 USD OR Buy 6 Month Subscription: $395 USD

As a result of this explosive growth, today Inside Facebook is announcing a new premium service and newsletter called the Facebook Global Market Monitor. The Global Market Monitor is designed to provide 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.

Each month, the Facebook Global Market Monitor will provide the latest comprehensive data on the expansion of Facebook’s audience in nearly 100 global markets. In addition, the Monitor will provide 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.

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.

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!

Facebook Global Market Monitor

Tracking Facebook in Global Markets

January 2009

Contents

I. 2008: 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 in Q4 2008
• Cooling Markets in Q4 2008

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 Market Monitor - January 2009 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

Facebook’s Platform team tonight posted a note letting developers know that due to “a significant increase in user growth and engagement” due to internationalization and Facebook Connect, user IDs will move from 32 to 64 bits in the upcoming months. Apparently, 4.2 billion IDs (the amount of possible 32 bit numbers) is not enough! In addition, the format for photo IDs and album IDs will be changing too.

As Facebook scales its service to handle large volumes of user data, it will need to make slight changes like this from time to time. Hopefully, this will not cause a headache for too many developers.

New Inside Facebook Top Jobs for January 5:

• Web Developer - Creative Software Developer for Java/PHP (Peanut Labs / San Francisco, CA)

Inside Facebook recently wrote about up-and-coming Facebook apps that have seen the most growth this past week.

Although the PixFix app had been rising slowly and steadily throughout December, it topped the list, growing in the past few days from 20k users to 164k users — almost 650% growth! As you can see from the AppData graph below, there is a spike that occurred on January 30th that lasted through the 1st, allowing the app to gain 135k users in only two days - most likely the result of an ad campaign to drive traffic to the app.

PixFix is a branded app sponsored by Clearasil that allows Facebook users to edit blemishes in photos using the online tool, aptly named after Clearasil’s Ultra Treatment Cream, and then share those photos with friends. Facebook Photos is a perfect fit for a brand like Clearasil, as Facebook is the most popular photo sharing site in the world.

One parenthetical line at the bottom is the only advertisement in the entire app:

“If you used Clearasil in real life, you probably wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Clever.

Today we are excited to announce the launch of Inside Facebook France, the world’s first blog dedicated to serving Facebook brand marketers, advertisers, and Facebook Platform application developers in French!

Inside Facebook France - Toute l’actualité de Facebook pour les développeurs et les acteurs du marketing

Facebook saw tremendous growth in France throughout 2008, increasing from 1 million users at the beginning of the year to over 6.5 million by year’s end. What’s more, Facebook’s growth in France is actually accelerating heading into 2009: Facebook’s French audience grew 80.4% (1.05 million new users) in Q3 2008 to 3.5 million, and by 86.8% (3.04 million new users) to 6.54 million in Q4. Facebook now reaches just over 10% of the French national population, and trails only Skyrock in reach within the country.

For French brand marketers, advertisers, and application developers, Facebook and the Facebook Platform offer unprecedented opportunity to engage users in their authentic social environment online. Like the original Inside Facebook, Inside Facebook France will track all the latest developments on Facebook and the Facebook Platform to keep you informed. And in addition to all the stories you see here on Inside Facebook, Inside Facebook France will provide additional coverage of Facebook developments happening in France.

For those interested in jump starting their understanding of the Facebook marketing landscape, last month we released La Bible du Marketing sur Facebook: 38 manières (et +) de promouvoir votre marque, entreprise, produit ou service à l’intérieur de Facebook, the definitive Facebook marketing guide for brand marketers, guerilla marketers, and application developers. It details dozens of tactics used by leading marketers inside Facebook, and is a great way to both learn the wide variety of ways marketers can engage Facebook users, and benchmark your marketing strategies and tactics. (The English version is available here.)

We’re very excited to have Patrice Bonfy, co-founder of leading French social media agency Sociabliz, on board as lead translator and writer at Inside Facebook France. Patrice brings a wealth of experience in the French social media market to the table. Recently, his firm Sociabliz launched a fan voting app for the NRJ Music Awards (what the MTV Music Awards are to the US). Sociabliz has also developed the Demographer Facebook demographics tool. Patrice is also the lead translator of La Bible du Marketing sur Facebook.

Inside Facebook France is very excited to work and partner with more French social media agencies and developers. If you’re working in the space, please email us at bonjour AT insidefacebook.com and introduce yourself!

Tchin-Tchin (Cheers!) to the year ahead!

A new report by traffic metrics firm Hitwise shows Facebook’s share of US Internet traffic hit an all time high on Christmas Eve 2008 at 2.18% of all US Internet visits.

While the report doesn’t show how total Internet visits trended on that day relative to the rest of the year, it does show that Facebook’s share of US Internet traffic on Christmas Eve was 50% higher than its November average, and 50% higher than it was on Christmas Eve 2007.

Why the spike in traffic? Many people are home from work or visiting relatives and have a lot of time to connect with friends on Facebook. And as we saw with the the plethora of popular Christmas applications on the Facebook Platform, many people used applications to send holiday greetings this year as well.

In 2008, it took 6 months for Facebook’s share of visits to surpass the mark it set on Christmas Day 2007. We’ll see how long it takes in 2009!

Check out the latest news & insights this week from Inside Social Games:

• SGN and David Maestri Reach Settlement over Mob Wars - The legal dispute between leading social game developer SGN and former employee David Maestri over the wildly popular Mob Wars game has come to an end. Check out all the details on the game’s future.
• FooMojo, Creators of Pokey, Close $9.9 Million Funding Round - The creators of Facebook’s popular “Pokey” game have now raised over $10 million USD from SoftBank. Find out more about what they plan to do with the cash.
• Will New York Tax Virtual Goods? - New York Governor David Patterson recently made a number of tax proposals to close the gap in New York’s state budget. One particularly broad proposal could apply to all “digitally delivered entertainment services,” including virtual goods.
• PlaySpan Announces Several Partners for Virtual Goods Marketplace - PlaySpan, which recently announced a $16 million fund raise, also announced several large partners for its virtual goods marketplace. Check out all the details.
• Hammerfall - A New Fantasy RPG on Facebook - Check out Hammerfall, a new Facebook RPG which combines elements of storytelling into the tried and true social RPG template.
• FutureGame Brings Stock Market Streak Games to Facebook - FutureGame combines stock market predictions and streak winnings for a new Facebook experience.

Protests by mothers over Facebook’s removal of breastfeeding photos posted to the site have gained worldwide attention this week.

The protests were started back in August by Facebook users Kelli Roman and Stephanie Knapp Muir when they created the Facebook Group Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! (Official petition to Facebook), dubbing the movement “MILC” (Mothers International Lactation Campaign). Roman and Muir started the group because photos mothers had posted of themselves breastfeeding their children had been taken down by Facebook for violation of Facebook’s terms of service.

Since then, the Facebook Group has grown to over 130,000 people, and group members last weekend organized a “nurse-in” in front of Facebook’s Palo Alto, CA headquarters to protest Facebook’s removal of breastfeeding photos. Here’s a YouTube video from the event:

In the days following the “nurse-in,” the MILC campaign garnered more attention in the national media. On Wednesday, CBS ran a 5 minute segment on its morning show discussing the debate:

For its part, Facebook says it is unlikely to change its policy, which prohibits nudity in photos. Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt said this week that Facebook takes no action on most breastfeeding photos, and that its rules are intended to keep Facebook a safe environment for children:

“Breastfeeding is a natural and beautiful act and we’re very glad to know that it is so important to some mothers to share this experience with others on Facebook. We take no action on the vast majority of breastfeeding photos because they follow the site’s Terms of Use. Photos containing a fully exposed breast do violate those Terms and may be removed. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children (over the age of 13) who use the site. The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain.”

“Certainly we can agree that there is context where nudity is not obscene, but we are reviewing thousands of complaints a day. Whether it’s obscene, art or a natural act — we’d rather just leave it at nudity and draw the line there.”

We’ll continue following the story and any further updates on Facebook’s policies in the months ahead.

Facebook has filed suit against social network aggregator Power.com for trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unlawful competition, violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and other charges. Power.com is a service that offers users the ability to manage multiple social network, email, and IM accounts from one dashboard.

The suit, which was first uncovered by Claire Cain Miller, alleges that Power.com “is offering a product that solicits, stores and uses Facebook login information to access information stored on Facebook computers without authorization and to display Facebook copyrighted material without permission.”

According to the suit, Power.com also falsely signed emails it sent as “The Facebook Team” and as being sent through “facebookmail.com” during a promotion in which it was offering $100 to the person that invited the most new users to Power.com.

In the complaint, Facebook says it notified Power.com on December 1 that it was in violation of Facebook’s trademarks and terms. On December 12, Power.com’s CEO Steven Vachani told Facebook that Power.com would switch its implementation to Facebook Connect, Facebook’s new service for third party websites to access the Facebook Platform, within two weeks. When Power.com had not made the switch by December 26, Facebook blocked access to its service.

“After discussing the issues with Power.com for about a month without reaching a resolution, we filed a lawsuit to enforce our terms of service, maintain the integrity of our site, and to assure our users’ privacy and security are protected,” Facebook’s Barry Schnitt told Miller.

For now, Power.com’s website says “a new and improved version of Facebook inside of Power” is “coming soon.”