Mike Lazerow, CEO of AceBucks (company name is actually Buddy Media) explains why they purchased the Versus franchise from ChipIn:

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.

Tags: AceBucks

FacebookWidgets.com writes:

The Lotto application, created by Dank Apps has received $250,000 in funding from Bay Partners. I previously covered AceBucks receiving an additional $200,000 in funding from the Bay Partners AppFactory fund. So what is the Lotto application? It’s pretty simple. Every day users can get a ticket to be entered into a lotter drawing. At the end of the day, cash is awarded to the participant who’s ticket is drawn. Where does this cash come from? Advertising.

Apparently enough people are clicking on ads that they can afford to give out $400 a week. This new Lotto application is going to eventually have some components that are directly integrated into the AceBucks application. As Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media previously suggested, their arrangement with Bay Partners was set up so that they could integrate AceBucks into each of the applications that received funding. It appears that this is one of those applications.

I am interested to see the response from others in regards to this announcement. So far, the majority of applications that are receiving funding are not necessarily the golden applications that I have frequently discussed. Instead, applications that attempt to distribute gold by turning their applications into marketing channels are the ones that are receiving funding. This contrasts to typical Web 2.0 sites in which the product is king. In the world of Facebook applications, creating channels for marketing before developing robust products is what’s important (at least that’s what it appears).

I have spoken with other venture capitalists that have disclosed to me investments they have made in other applications, a few of which have been more utility focused. For the most part though, investments in Facebook applications is still rare. There are nowhere near as many Facebook startups receiving funding as there are general web startups. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. If you want to play the daily lotto on Facebook, go check out The Lotto application.

If you want to learn more about getting funding, go check out the DankApps website to learn more about the company that build the Lotto.

Tags: AceBucks, The Lotto

The company behind AceBucks, the unofficial virtual currency for Facebook, has raised $1.5 million. AceBucks allows users to buy, sell, and trade virtual dollars that they will soon be able to use in a Facebucks store. The application was originally built by Aryeh Goldsmith, who sold it to the newly formed Buddy Media. At the moment, Facebook counts 1,780 daily active users for the application.

It’s worth noting that one of the investors is Peter Thiel, who is also an investor in Facebook. Other investors include Howard Lindzon, Mark Pincus and James Altucher.

– Mashable

Tags: AceBucks