There’s 200 million people using Facebook, and every month more than 70% of those people use Facebook apps. Yes, those can be the annoying little invitations you receive everytime you log on to your profile, I usually ignore them, but admittingly, some of them can be pretty interesting.
Facebook’s investment fund, known as the fbFund 2009, is actively seeking all sorts of really good applications that people adopt into their daily routines, from social games to, I don’t know, celebrity fan pages dedicated to Britney Spears…
Earlier this year, the fbFund was announced calling startup companies to come up with really good apps that could receive up to $100,000 in seed investments. The fbFund has also shifted gears a bit to focus specifically on developers
creating apps leveraging Facebook Connect for the Web and the iPhone.
Along with opportunity for these financial investments, the fbFund 2009 has added an incubator program. This program will be held from mid-June to late August in Silicon Valley. Selected teams will be given the opportunity to connect with Facebook engineers and executives, along with succesful entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists.
Today, the fbFund 2009 has announced its Developer Advisory Council. Here’s what it looks like:
Accel Partners
Citizen Sports
Facebook
First Round Capital (Josh Kopelman)
Flixster
Founders Fund
KISSmetrics
Kontagent
Playfish
RockYou
Serious Business
Stanford University (BJ Fogg, Rajeev Motwani)
SGN
ShareThrough
Slide
Tapulous
Zynga
Out of the 50 fbFund 2009 finalists, a handful will be given a "golden ticket," to work with the list above.
Facebook says, “We have a pocketful of cash to put to work on people and startups who are ready to make social applications and experiences explode across the web and mobile devices.”
Here's a link to the application form. The deadline is on April 20th, 2009 - just a few days away.
If you want to learn a little bit more about the Developer Advisory Council, check out their profiles on Vator, see links below.
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Steven Loeb
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Citizen Sports brings the world of sports to your favorite social networking sites. We think sports are more fun with friends around…when you can cheer with friends, brawl with rivals, share news, talk smack and build your status to let everyone know what you’re made of.
Right now you can find us on Facebook and MySpace, but keep an eye out - we have more teams, more applications and more social networks coming soon.
Be a fan. Become a citizen of the world of sports.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Slide is the largest personal media network in the world, reaching 144 million unique global viewers each month and more than 30 percent of the U.S. Internet audience. We help people express themselves and tell stories through personalized photos and videos created on Slide.com and viewed anywhere on the web or desktop.
Slide's products — including Slideshows, FunWall and SuperPoke! — are popular on top social networking and blog platforms, including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Tagged and Blogger. Slide is also the leading developer on Facebook with more than 84 million applications installed and the most active users than any other developer.
Launched in 2005 and founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Slide is backed by Mayfield Fund, Blue Run Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Playfish is a social games company that creates games for people to play together.
Founded in October 2007 by casual and mobile games veterans and backed by $3M in seed funding, we believe games are more fun when played with friends and family. So we are working on combining the best elements of casual games, social networks, MMOGs and virtual worlds to create entirely new, more social ways of enjoying great games together.
Traditional computer games focus on standalone game play on consoles, your PC or on your mobile. Games that do allow you to play together with others online normally require you to buy the game, go online and try and find like-minded new friends who are also playing the game. This is something that usually only the most dedicated gamers are prepared to do.
Our social games are different. Social games allow you to play together with real-world friends and family using the infrastructure built by social networks. This is in some ways a return to the roots of games. You play with the same people you would play cards, board games or go bowling with in the real world. Sharing the game experience with friends makes it more compelling and fun.
At Playfish we believe social games are a big part of the future of the video games industry, and are working hard to be the leading company in this emerging sector.
Playfish is headquartered in London, UK with offices in Beijing, China and Tromsø, Norway.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
RockYou is a leading provider of applications and widgets on the web. RockYou widgets include photo slideshows, glitter text, customized Facebook applications and voicemail accessories that are simple to use and enable people to frequently refresh their online style. Founded in 2006, RockYou has over 35 million users, serving over 180 million widget views per day in more than 200 countries. RockYou applications are customized for easy integration across all social networks including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Tagged and hi5.Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Tapulous is a Palo Alto, CA based startup building a family of fun and social apps for the iPhone. We are angel funded and have released two apps for the iPhone (as of early August, 2008): Tap Tap Revenge (a music game) and Twinkle (the app that lets you connect with people nearby and your friends on Twitter).
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Zynga is the largest social gaming company with 8.5 million daily users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Yahoo! and the iPhone, and include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist. The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.zynga.com.
