More Apps Join Facebook’s Open Graph Bandwagon

Facebook recently announced the addition of 12 more apps to Facebook Timeline, ^[1] including the likes of The Daily Show, Huffington Post, Mashable and MSNBC.com. This announcement comes just weeks after the company released impressive advertising metrics in its S-1 filing. ^[2] The inclusion of these apps should further strengthen investor confidence in Facebook’s display advertising business. Facebook leads the social networking space and competes for ad dollars with players like Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO).

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More App Partners Expected Going Forward

Despite some privacy concerns raised over Facebook’s frictionless sharing concept, Timeline apps have clearly benefited through the Open Graph by getting more web traffic through Facebook. Struggling Internet giant Yahoo! has reportedly seen around 25 million people adopting its Social Bar on Facebook.

What’s interesting is that the new assortment of apps also includes other companies that are suffering from decreased user engagement over the years, such as AOL’s Huffington Post. Given these trends, we expect many more publishing houses to launch their own apps in the future as well to improve both traffic and engagement metrics. Facebook of course will have another reason to smile as its own page views are bound to increase on a per capita basis.

The updated Trefis valuation for Facebook stands at roughly $74 billion based on the revisions to our forecasts for Facebook’s metrics, including revenues, EBITDA margins, capital expenditures and net working capital.

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1. The Latest Wave of Media Apps to Add to Timeline, Facebook + Media, 17th Feb 2012 [↩]
2. Facebook’s S-1 Filing, Securities and Exchange Commission, 1st Feb 2012 [↩]