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StudiVZ Investor Backs Facebook App Team

Last month I wrote about the fast growing Brain Buddies game which was a remix of “Who Has the Biggest Brain?”, one of Playfish’s top games. Today the developer behind Brain Buddies, wooga, announced that they received funding from none other than Holtzbrinck Ventures, one of the primary investors in StudiVZ, a German Facebook copycat (which was previously sued by Facebook).

I’ve been trying to get information about the size of the investment but the companies are releasing any information. My guess is this is between $500k and the low seven figures given the quality of the company’s first game.…


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Facebook For Android Coming Soon, Leaked Photos Emerge

Around a week ago rumors surfaced that Facebook was in the process of developing a new application for the Android platform in conjunction with the developers at Google. Approximately three weeks ago I also confirmed from an extremely close source that an Android application was indeed under development. Today leaked images surfaced of the upcoming version of Facebook for the Android. With numerous Android handsets under development it was only a matter of time before an Android application was released.

Facebook on other mobile platforms have proven to be extremely popular. Facebook for iPhone has close to 4 million daily…


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The Platform Wars Return To The Forefront, What Is Facebook’s Position?

With Google announcing the launch of a PC based operating system and the emergence of a fierce battle to become the leading mobile operating system, it’s clear that the platform wars are back in full force. Recently Techcrunch posted impressive statistics regarding Firefox’s growth, highlighting that the browser wars have been revived as well. Over a year and a half ago I argued that the social web platform wars were now taking place and what’s becoming increasingly clear is that there is a single battle for the hearts and minds of developers.

Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed back in 2007 that Facebook…


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Announcing First Set Of Social Ad Summit 2009 Speakers

Just over two weeks ago we announced the 2009 Social Ad Summit and today I’m happy to present the first 8 speakers for the event. The conference is being held at Tribeca Rooftop in New York City on October 5, 2009. So far we’ve had a great response and expect this event to sell out based on the number of inquiries we’ve received so far. If you haven’t received the registration information for the event yet, head over to the Social Ad Summit website and enter your information on the homepage.

Over the next few weeks we will be announcing…


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Facebook’s Biggest Competition: Mobile Platforms

When the Facebook platform launched two years ago, thousands of developers flocked to participate in a land grab opportunity. Two years later mobile platforms appear to be most effective at attracting entrepreneurial teams of application developers. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, has famously emphasized the importance of developers (see video here). Any successful platform needs to attract developers and Facebook has been especially effective at doing so.

Through Facebook developer garages and the fbFund, Facebook has attracted the attention of many developers but since the launch of last year’s iPhone, things have changed. In today’s New York Times, Jenna Wortham writes…


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Announcing The Social Ad Summit 2009

Last year we hosted the inaugural Social Ad Summit in New York City. The event also happened to be hosted on the same day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the markets began to slide downward. Despite turmoil around the corner on Wall Street, 250 people still managed to get together to discuss the future of advertising on the social web (although many were hopping in and out of the event to see if sky had fallen).

While not nearly as important as a global financial crisis, the conversation was important for an industry still trying to figure out…


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Zynga Expands Position As Largest Facebook Developer

While LivingSocial may hold the title for largest application on the Facebook platform, Zynga, the leading social gaming company on Facebook, continues to expand their lead daily. As of today the company is just shy of 43 million monthly active users and 100,000 short of 8 million daily active users, making it the biggest platform developer by all metrics. It appears that for a few days Facebook stopped updating their metrics last week. Once they began updating again Zynga’s metrics jumped through the roof.

What’s increasingly becoming clear is that social games are continuously battling for the top spot when…


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Is Facebook Lining Up A Payment Platform For f8?

Last week I began speculating about what Facebook could announce at this year’s f8. One of the only ideas I could come up with at the time was the launch of a payment platform for developers. Last night Eric Eldon suggested that Facebook would begin testing a payments system with developers in the next few weeks. There has been a substantial amount of buzz about a payment platform for almost a year and a half now but so far only subtle changes have materialized.

The first update was posted by Facebook back in December of 2007 when the company announced…


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