Know Who’s Making Big Bucks on Facebook

With over 500 million users now, Facebook is certainly the best social media website available today. However, it’s not only Facebook who’s making money. Several other companies have joined-in the league, and are making money from rising demand of this social media network. Let us have a look at few such companies.

Wildfire

This brand marketing company uses Facebook to create buzz for most of the clients, which ranges from small entities to larger ones like Coca-Cola. They develop a platform where ‘fans’ with one click can gets access to direct interaction with the advertising company.

Wildfire comes up with innovative campaigns like quizzes, contests, coupons, gifts, and so on. These strategies are very effective when it comes to promote the brand name like, well, wildfire.

Not many companies in this area have the expertise to provide viral marketing strategies that really works. However, at Wildfire, they know what people need and how the campaign works.

The operational model too is trendy, and far from traditional concepts. Most of the process is online, with fees starting from mere $5 up front amount and 99 cents for each day of service. For big budget campaign, they have premium marketing campaigns. The company is now planning to move beyond Facebook, on other social networking sites. It has already started its operation on Twitter.

Slide

Commenced its business in 2005, Slide was found by Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal. Initially, they focused on a photo sharing software on MySpace that allowed users create customized photo album and slideshows. Very soon, they branched out into generating widgets for the social media giant Facebook, and gained popularity by some popular widgets like FunWall and Top Friends.

Being one of the initial entrants, Slide also attracted many venture capitalists. In January 2008, it attracted $50 million. However, Facebook, due to varied users, is unpredictable, and Slide is now struggling to keep up with the pace, especially after arrival of several new players. Currently, Zynga is on the top with 211 million users, and Slide has slided to #17 with only 14 million users.

Yet, Slide is far from coming to an end. It’s still a lucrative business, says Keith Rabios, Slide’s Executive Wise President.

Oodle

Initially, when Oodle came into existence, it was a standalone website that sold everything from pets to home appliance to houses. It was extremely difficult to survive in a space where Craiglist dominated.

Meanwhile, Facebook came up with its on classified category known as ‘Marketplace’ early in 2007. After about two years, this social networking company came searching for Oodle to transform it into more professional marketplace.

Oodle now helps buyer, also a Facebook user, to reach the seller conveniently by getting rid of anonymity, and ease of access to contact details.

For individuals, Facebook’s Marketplace is free. However, businesses would have to pay some amount to post here. The original Oodle website is still operative and is pretty much a success. When a sellers posts an ad on Oodle, it appears on hundreds of social networking and other websites.

Zangya

Zangya is barely 2 years old, but the games launched this company have become necessities for Facebook users. Some of the very popular games include FarmVille, FishVille and several other Villes, and also games like Mafia Wars. Before they even check their wall, many users directly log onto Zangya and start playing its games.

Zangya’s most popular game, FarmVille, asks people to become a farmer and grow their virtual farm by planting crops and raising more cattle. The company did not reveal its annual revenue, but with over 200 million players worldwide, Zangya is certainly one of the top earners on Facebook. Many venture capitalists have invested more than $400 million into this company.

Zangya’s empire, with over 30 million virtual farms, seems to be bigger than the US farms that counts only 2 million.