I am extremely excited to announce that Buddy Media has acquired 5 applications from ChipIn, Inc. Combined, the applications have been installed by 5.6 million Facebook users and generate more than 5 million page views a day.

The acquired applications are a series of popular Facebook applications based on a “Versus” franchise. In the applications, users join one side (Vampires vs. Werewolves, Pirates vs. Ninjas, Skiers vs. Snowboarders, Santa vs. The Grinch, Cops vs. Robbers) and create armies and battle each other to win virtual gold coins.

Why did Buddy Media buy these applications?

~ Huge Traffic: We are currently working with many large media and marketing companies to drive their overall Facebook and social media strategy. This includes application development, application marketing and more. This deal gives us 150M+ page views a month (and growing) to use to fulfill our current and future ad deals.

~ Loyal Audience: Buddy Media is all about loyalty. With 11,000 applications already live on Facebook, we believe strongly that the social networks need a loyalty system to keep users coming back. The “Versus” apps have a VERY loyal audience. According to third-party analytics services, the apps average 33 page views per visit. And more than half of all the applications’ unique visitors came back 9 times or more in the past week. That’s more than once a day! They will be even stickier as soon as we complete the AceBucks integration.

~ AceBucks, AceBucks, AceBucks: We will use these applications to promote AceBucks to 5M+ additional Facebook users. This helps solidify AceBucks’ position as the leading loyalty program on Facebook, with short-term plans to expland on other social nets. The games fit AceBucks really well. We will be allowing users to take their earned gold coins and transfer them into AceBucks, where they can buy any of the 4800+ items for sale in the AceBucks Stores. We will also be adding new life to the games by promoting the games to our growing audience.

~ Revenue Potential: The apps are currently generating significant cash flow through several third-party networks. We will be able to generate premium CPMs from the applications by selling the advertising and sponsorship inventory directly. We can drive much better results for our partners (and CPMs for Buddy Media) by operating our own apps in addition to working with others. ChipIn has already shown success with the apps. Lionsgate Entertainment used the application to promote the werewolf movie Skinwalkers, spending $15,000 a month to embed a promotional video inside the apps.

~ Additional Apps: We plan to use the flexible “Versus” application technology to launch other apps. The model has appeal. Proof is in the numbers.

Why would ChipIn sell the applications given their popularity and intense loyalty? Simple … Focus. Carnet Williams, the company’s CEO, is trying to create a monster widget business. I have no doubt Carnet will be successful. I enjoyed getting to know him during our negotiation and he’s as bright as they come. And he is smart enough to know that with $1 million in angel funding for ChipIn, he can’t do everything. The Facebook apps, which were launched as a marketing campaign for Carnet’s real business, started to “take its toll on ChipIn,” this month’s Inc. Magazine reports, detailing Carnet’s growth and decision. “Its software developers were finding themselves devoting more and more of their time to coding for Facebook applications.”

This deal is one of many great deals we already have in store for 2008. Stay tuned! This is just the beginning.

UPDATE: Here is Carnet’s blog post about the deal. AllFacebook.com, Social Times and Mashable have some initial coverage as well.

I’m really excited to announce that many of the deals we have been working on with major brands are starting to launch. The most recent is with Busch Entertainment Corporation, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, centered around a really cool Facebook game called Splash Blast.

The app answers the age-old question of “What happens when Shamu and Seymour the sea lion hang out together?” The answer: You get a total Splash Blast!

The object of this wonderfully wet and addictive game is to create clusters of three or more like colored beach balls. You aim Seymour’s nose with your mouse, then click to shoot a beach ball into the air. Put together a cluster and watch the balls tumble down to the SeaWorld park - bringing you a pool full of AceBucks. (You also earn 50 AceBucks for installing Splash Blast.)

BEC has partnered with Buddy Media on an integrated marketing campaign to drive user traffic for Splash Blast, which resides on Facebook. Busch Entertainment has chosen to integrate the Splash Blast game with AceBucks to drive user loyalty and virility.

Thank you Busch Entertainment and Anheuser-Busch for partnering with AceBucks and Buddy Media! We look forward to working with you on this and other projects.

Don’t get too excited. I was fully clothed. But Howard wasn’t. If that doesn’t get you to click through, I don’t know what will. Howard hosted me on Naked Putz this weekend. Enjoy!

I am excited to announce that Ira Tau started today as Buddy Media’s Vice President of Engineering. Ira will be responsible for Buddy Media’s technology team.

Ira has more than 20 years experience in Information Technology. Ira spent more than 10 years at Time Inc., where he was the associate director of internet technology. Most recently, Ira served as a lead technical analyst for NBC’s iVillage.

In addition to being a top-notch programmer, Ira is a season technical manager. Ira will be key to help Buddy Media scale its personnel and systems to handle our current growth path.

Welcome Ira!

I’m stoked (excuse the pun) to announce that we have acquired the Crushes Facebook app. As part of the deal, the application’s creator, Patrick Stokes, will join Buddy Media as a senior programmer working out of our New York City office. Terms of the deal have not been released.

The addition of Crushes to Buddy Media’s application portfolio gives the company one of the leading pure-play dating applications on Facebook. More than a million Facebook users have installed Crushes and 30,000 use the service each day. Crushes will be combined with Buddy Media’s Matches app, which currently has more than 230,000 installs. Buddy Media will also integrate AceBucks into the application.

Patrick is a great addition to our team. He is a 27 year old native “Jersey Guy” and web developer. After working with IBM during and after college, Patrick quickly learned that the large corporate environment was not for him. Patrick took a job at JK Design, a small web design firm in New Jersey. He started off as a part time freelancer and eventually became the company’s lead developer.

During his time at JK Design, Patrick started working long hard hours after his day job on side projects for itMayBe Media LLC, a small business that he started with good friend and elbo.ws creator, Brandon Griffiths. When Facebook announced their developers platform Patrick quickly jumped on board and wrote 4cast Weather, which in the course of 2 months had 250,000 users and had surpassed it’s competitors as the most used weather application on Facebook, as well as one of the most used “utility” apps on Facebook. Shortly after, Patrick wrote Crushes.

Welcome aboard Patrick!

SpinBook is the latest app to use AceBucks to drive loyalty and engagement. The app is giving away 100 AceBucks every hour to users of the app. You can check it out here. And you can see all the winners here.

SpinBook is a cool little app. You click “spin” and are taken to a completely random Facebook Application or Facebook Group.

Do you have an app and need more users? Write me (michael — atsign — buddymedia.com).

AceBucks Stores are live. Check them out here.

AceBucks Stores is a peer-to-peer trading platform using AceBucks. Users can open a store and sell items — real, virtual and services — to other users. They can accept AceBucks or any currency they choose (US dollars, Canadian dollars, etc.). If they want AceBucks, we handle the transaction. If they want other currency, the buyer and seller handle that privately using PayPal, check, credit card of any other form they choose. Shipping is handled in either AceBucks or any currency specified. (We’re planning an integrated payment system in the next phase, FYI, to make payment processing easier).

So why is this important?

AceBucks Stores are important for AceBucks users because the system lets them trade-in any item they don’t want for AceBucks and use those AceBucks to buy real items they actually want. The process is really easy. You open a store, you list your items and AceBucks promotes your items through the AceBucks network applications to other AceBuckers looking to spend their AceBucks. The Stores are important for Buddy Media as they help off-load a large chunk of the “Burn ‘Em,” or benefits portion of our loyalty program, to the members. We now can offer AceBuck users tens of thousands of items rather than the few dozen we can secure ourselves. And in the process, we make it much, AceBucks much more valuable for those who earn them.

We launched the stores about an hour ago. We already have 45 items listed for sale. It’s interesting to see what’s being uploaded first:

William Li of Sacramento opened a store called “The Android’s Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop.” He has listed some really cool items for sale, including an autographed photo of Dirk Nowitzki, a signed Chicago Cubs Mark Prior Jersey, a signed SF 49ers Alex Smith jersey, autographed baseball cards of Kevin Tapani, Jeff Reardon and John Olerud and a $10 Gift Card to the Corner Bakery Café.

I think William priced the items too high. But we’ll let the market determine that. William is an econ major, so he probably knows much more about market dynamics than I do.

Teresa Oldridge of Chilliwack, BC, has opened a store to sell custom avatars and desktop wallpapers.

Lisa Zebb of Los Altos, CA, is selling her old iPod among other items. Lisa listed the iPod for $45,000 AceBucks. My prediction: she will sell it before the week is over.

More than 1.5 million people have signed up for Buddy Media applications and more than 50,000 new users install each day. This store system will ensure they always have great items to buy with their AceBucks. The AceBucks economy is alive and well!

Here’s a screenshot:

Buddy Media’s goal in building AceBucks is to create a new, web-wide loyalty program. Users are going to be more loyal to applications and businesses that reward them for using and buying their products and services.

We’ve seen how these economics played out in the credit card (AmEx Rewards), airline (the mileage programs), hotel (Starwood Points) and other industries. We’re making a bet that the new social networks are ripe for a loyalty program that rewards users with high-value points (AceBucks) in exchange for their engagement (playing games, taking surveys, completing offers, etc.) The equation is simple – our users get free stuff and our marketing partners get engaged users.

Our primary weapon in cementing AceBucks as the loyalty program preferred by an entire generation of web users is the recently launched AceBucks API. Our API is an application programming interface that lets third-party developers interact with the AceBucks system to verify account holders and credit, debit and authorize accounts.

The first applications that implemented an early version of the AceBucks API were launched Oct. 18 in partnership with Skyworks. Skyworks is a leading online casual games company. The Skyworks management team includes video game industry pioneers David Crane and Garry Kitchen who were among the co-founders of Activision and Absolute Entertainment before Skyworks.

We launched 5 games – Sudoku, Air Hockey, Pub Darts, Mental Blocks and Corn Hole. All of the games are relatively similar in their implementation. Users get AceBucks for installing, referring friends and playing the games. Here are several screenshots (click on the thumbnail to get the full image).

(The data below is public information pulled straight from the Facebook platform and Appsaholic, which is run by our good friends over at Social Media. I am prevented by my agreement with Skyworks from sharing non-public information but I think you’ll get the point from the data below.)

The early results have proven our thesis that AceBucks can help applications break through the application clutter. Here are a few stats from the launch:

• In the first 2 weeks, AceBucks drove more than 250,000 installs to Skyworks games (it’s important to note that the AceBucks app was the only marketing for the games).
• As of today, more than 400,000 Facebook users have installed the Skyworks game applications.
• More than 25,000 users add the games each day.
• More than 50,000 Facebook users play the Skyworks games each day on Facebook, making the games one of the most popular portfolio of games on Facebook.

The Skyworks game apps have proven the power of AceBucks. We are looking for more partners that want to build cool ways to earn and burn AceBucks. What can we do for your business or applications? Four primary things:

1. App Development: While our primary business is not third-party application development, we will do it provided there’s an AceBucks hook. We’re currently working with several major brands to bring new AceBucks-integrated apps to market. Do you need an app or have an idea for an app? We can create it for you and get it into orbit.

2. Drive Installations: Provide users a way to earn AceBucks through your application, web site or business and we can drive people to you extremely cost effectively. In less than a month, we have already sent Skyworks 400,000+ users!

3. Drive Viral Growth: We can provide you a way to incent your users to invite their friends to your application. With the Skyworks games, we gave away 5 AceBucks per invite sent and 25 AceBucks for each successful referral.

4. Drive Engagement: By offering AceBucks for usage of or actions inside your application, you will provide users a reason to come back again and again. For some of the Skyworks games, twenty percent (20%) of the users are coming back every day!

If you have a current Facebook application or are looking to build one, call us today. Let’s talk about how you can use AceBucks to drive your business. You too can sign up more than 25,000 users a day by integrating with AceBucks.

Head over to Facebook and become a fan today:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7242017787

I am constantly asked the same question … why would people want to earn AceBucks? Well, here’s why. You can use your AceBucks to buy Jay-Z tickets.

In what goes down as the single best member benefit we have provided AceBuckers, you can now use your AceBucks to buy Jay-Z tickets in Chicago, NYC and LA. When these tickets first went on sale, they sold out in less than a minute. The Chicago show tix were gone in 8 seconds. The shows are part of a 5-city tour at intimate venues across the country to support the latest Jay-Z album, American Gangster, which hits stores Nov. 6.

You can see the auctions here.