Facebook Roundup: China, Paul Adams, Video Calling, Badgeville, Don Dodge, and More
China Will Not Invest in Facebook – China’s Investment Corp is not set to invest in Facebook stock, according to a report, since the CIC sees the company as overvalued.
Facebook’s Paul Adams Blogs About Google, Book – Paul Adams, Facebook’s current Global Brand Experience Manager Paul Adams and Google’s former Senior User Experience Researcher wrote a blog post where he addressed why he left Google, why his book “Social Circles” was blocked by Google, his upcoming book “Grouped” and his current work on advertising at Facebook.
Facebook Denies Stealing Video Call URL – A company that had its own video calling service, Samuday Web Technologies, is claiming that Facebook shut down it’s video chat app and it’s URL facebook.com/videocalling so it could launch their own product at that address. Facebook’s comment on the issue via ZDNet was:
“The app was disabled by an automated system for a policy violation that was not related to the URL of the app,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “The developer’s appeal was manually reviewed; the violation was confirmed, and the appeal was denied. Two months after the initial disabling of the app, Facebook acquired the URL.”
Badgeville Raises $12M in Series B – Badgeville, website gamification platform which we wrote about previously, raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, bringing their total funding to $15 million. The company also added Tim Chang of Norwest and Tom Peterson of El Dorado Ventures to their board. For more on the company’s ongoing changes, check out this infographic.
Facebook Says Sponsored Stories Perform 2x Better Than Standard Ads – David Fischer, Facebook’s Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations told Fast Company that its Sponsored Stories ad unit that converts user behaviors into sidebar ads perform, on average, two times better than it’s standard ad unit, and that there hasn’t been significant user backlash.
Don Dodge Helps Users Export Facebook Friends to Google+ – Google’s Don Dodge wrote a blog post this week that walks Facebook users through how to export the email addresses of their friends using Yahoo! mail and then import them to Google+. The guide to the migration process could fuel tension between the two web giants, and Facebook may look to shut down exporting through Yahoo! to protect itself from Google’s new social network.
TripAdvisor Acquires Where I’ve Been – TripAdvisor, developer of several Facebook apps including the once massively popular Cities I’ve Visited, has acquired fellow travel experience sharing app Where I’ve Been. The acquired app once had over 116,000 daily active users but since November it has plummeted to just 3,000 DAU.
AT&T Begins Selling HTC Status Phone with Facebook Button – The HTC Status is the first mobile phone with a dedicated, physical Facebook button for sharing currently viewed content or one’s locations. The device’s carrier, AT&T, is now accepting pre-orders for the Status.
Announcements:
SortPrice Adds Flash Sales Features to Facebook Platform Ecommerce Suite – SortPrice, an ecommerce tool set for websites with Facebook integrations, has added a new flash sales feature to its product. It allows clients to list specific products at a discount for limited time, and displays users a countdown to the end of the sale.
ShortStack Provides Free Services to Pages Under 2K – ShortStack’s “Surprisingly Free” plan offers the company’s tab design apps and non-database driven widgets free to businesses with anywhere from 100 to 2,000 fans. This includes the ability to run contests and sweepstakes, create landing Pages, play videos, display a photo gallery, show reviews, and integrate online shopping and blogs inside a tab.
AlertSite Reports Facebook is Fastest Social Network – AlertSite reported its results from the Q2 Web Performance Index, noting that Facebook’s fastest response time was .7 seconds, replacing YouTube as the most reliable social networking site.
OneRPM Launches MP3 Facebook Ecommerce Solution for Musicians – This week, OneRPM debuted its Facebook ecommerce tool for musicians. It allows them to sell music from their Facebook Page, accept payment within Facebook or through PayPal, and gain fans through Like-gates.
