Video apps see growth from Open Graph integration

These apps mostly live off-Facebook, but the addition of automatic publishing to Ticker, Timeline and News Feed has provided new opportunities for users to discover them. The social network continues to push the idea that Open Graph is not about bringing the entire web onto Facebook, but integrating Facebook into other sites and mobile devices and letting more companies reap the benefits.

Music video platform Vevo had early success with its Timeline app, but growth has accelerated significantly since Vevo switched to Facebook-only login in March. Here are some key stats from Facebook:

• 200 percent increase in daily registrations since the change to Facebook-only registration
• 600 percent increase in published actions on Facebook from February to March
• 130 percent increase in referrals from Facebook to VEVO from February to March
• 60 percent of Facebook referral traffic comes from Open Graph stories

According to our AppData tracking service, Vevo had 170,000 monthly active users on Jan. 1. Now the app has 750,000 MAU. Although Vevo did not share a breakdown of where activity was occurring, it’s worth noting that the company added a Facebook canvas experience last month for users to search for and watch videos directly from the social network.

Viddy is a mobile application best explained as “Instagram for videos.” Users can shoot 15-second videos with their iPhone, add visual effects and share the clips on Facebook. Since integrating with timeline in February, 1.5 million people joined Viddy, and the app has gone from 60,000 MAU to more than 920,000. Celebrities like Snoop Dogg, who use Viddy’s Timeline app along with the Facebook subscribe feature, have helped popularize the app. According to Facebook, Viddy has seen:

• 2x increase in average daily sign-ups since integrating Open Graph
• 9 million interactions with Viddy content on Facebook

Viddy shared the following additional statistics with us:

• 90 percent of new users join the Viddy app through Facebook (up from 25% prior to Timeline integration)
• 45 percent of all uploaded videos are now shared via Facebook since the integration

Turkish video site Izlesene makes frequent appearances in our AppData charts as one of the fastest growing applications. Since launching its Open Graph integration in September 2011, MAU has grown from 250,000 to more than 6.5 million. Izlesene has also experienced a 3x increase in the number of videos people view per day. According to Facebook, Izlesene ran A/B tests to find the right design for the site and copy for the auth dialog that would lead more people to add the application. For example, it added the Facebook Facepile plug-in and more context about permissions it requests.

Dailymotion is a video sharing site that added Open Graph functionality in January. The app had less than 680,000 MAU when it launched Timeline integration at F8. It peaked in mid-March with 8.8 million MAU, but has since dropped down to 5.4 million MAU. Daily active users are on the rise again this week. Representatives from Dailymotion didn’t tell us exactly what contributed to the fluctuations, but said there were some tests and promotions last month that could have had an effect.

For now, the app only shares stories about what users watch, not videos they add or other actions they take on the site. Even with the limited range of actions, more than 2 million Dailymotion stories are published to the social network on an average day, Facebook says. Dailymotion also says Facebook-connected users tend to engage more with content on the site than non-connected users, but it did not provide numbers for this.

Facebook did not include Hulu in its roundup. The app, which is available from the Facebook canvas and Hulu.com, uses Open Graph to publish the TV shows and video clips users watch. Hulu hasn’t seen the same momentum as some other Timeline apps, but this could be related to external factors, like how many shows it makes exclusive for Hulu Plus subscribers or changes in show air dates made to accommodate professional sports seasons and tournaments. Hulu also doesn’t offer some of the most buzzed about shows that are currently in season, like “Mad Men” or “Game of Thrones,” which limits its potential.

There are a few changes Hulu could make to maximize engagement with its app. For example, it could give users the ability to tag friends they’re watching a show with or leave comments at different points during an episode, similar to what SoundCloud does with songs. Hulu should consider adding new actions besides “watch,” for example  “rate” or “favorite.” The app could also benefit from better summaries of what users watch over time. Currently, the streaming TV service simply displays the total videos users watched in a given time period. Instead, Hulu could highlight a user’s most popular show and display how many episodes of each series a user watched or how many seasons a user completed.