Social Media Portal

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AOL’s Platform-A announces that it will offer Bebo and Facebook application developers a guaranteed CPM for U.S. traffic to their applications. The CPM is one of the industry’s highest for this inventory. Platform-A is AOL’s advertising business. AOL acquired Bebo, in May 2008.

The offering is part of the WIDGNET™ publisher network launched earlier this year by Platform-A’s Advertising.com. WIDGNET is an offering that allows advertisers to add fresh inventory to their media mix by placing advertising within widgets and similar applications found in the WIDGNET network. Through WIDGNET, Bebo and Facebook application developers will gain access to Platform-A’s vast base of brand and performance advertisers. The guaranteed CPM rates will apply to the first three impressions for each unique U.S. visitor who visits an approved developer’s application.

“This announcement reinforces Platform-A’s commitment to helping developers generate revenue and monetize their Bebo and Facebook applications in the rapidly evolving social networking space. Advertiser interest in social networks is rising at a steady rate, and Platform-A is making an unprecedented flat-fee commitment to help application developers generate revenue and guarantee monetization of their applications,” said Dave Jacobs, Senior Vice President of Publisher Services, Platform-A Advertising.com Networks. “Platform-A views social networking applications as an area where we can add significant value by letting developers focus on expanding their install base, without worrying about monetization of applications.”

Social networking applications vary in size and complexity and range from useful photo manipulation tools to fun novelty games. Applications are built using proprietary markup language and leverage the core features of both sites. Users can add, share and employ these applications within their profiles. There are more than 30,000 applications currently available across the Bebo and Facebook directories, representing tens of millions of installs and millions of active users.

Bebo launched its Open Application Platform in December 2007, opening its API to third-party developers to integrate their applications with the Bebo site. Bebo has more than 4,000 applications available to date -- from music and movies to gameplay and photo sharing -- for the site's 42 million plus users worldwide. And in its quest to make it as seamless as possible for developers to reach their users, Bebo plans to integrate with OpenSocial in the coming months, making it the first social media network to be compatible with both the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms.

Platform-A’s Facebook publishers range from independent developers to established companies such as RockYou, Scrabulous and Fotoflexer, whose customizable applications include photo slideshows, photo and image editing, glitter text, voicemail accessories and games.

Platform-A is currently in the process of expanding this program to offer guaranteed CPMs for European Bebo and Facebook application developers this summer.

Platform-A is actively reviewing other widget platforms as inventory opportunities evolve. For more information, go to http://widgnet.advertising.com.

About Platform-A

Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, is the industry’s largest digital advertising platform, offering the most comprehensive suite of marketing solutions, powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies. Platform-A includes AOL’s leading media properties – AOL.com, AIM, MapQuest, and more – and Advertising.com’s third-party networks. Platform-A also includes TACODA’s audience insights and behavioral targeting; Quigo, a site- and content-targeting solution; ADTECH, an international digital ad serving business; Third Screen Media, a mobile ad serving network; and buy.at, an affiliate marketing solution. Platform-A currently has operations in the United States, nine countries across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and Japan through a joint venture with Mitsui.

About Bebo

Bebo is the world’s leading global social media network. Building on the notion of traditional social networking websites, Bebo combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover, and share professional and user-generated content through the Bebo website. Bebo has more than 11.9 unique users in the U.K., and a total membership of more than 42 million worldwide. Bebo’s worldwide users spend an average of 30 minutes a day on the site. Bebo forms part of AOL’s newly created People Networks business unit which combines Bebo, the AIM and ICQ personal communications network, widget technology company Goowy Media and social search and answer service Yedda. People Networks’ collection of community platforms reaches 80 million unduplicated users worldwide. Bebo is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL LLC, a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.

AOL/Platform-A
Eric Chandler, 212-206-4434
Eric.Chandler@corp.aol.com