(8 July 2008 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: US net service provider AOL's Platform-A has announced that it will offer social networking sites Bebo and Facebook application developers a guaranteed cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) for US traffic to their applications.

The CPM, AOL says, is one of the industry's highest for this inventory. Platform-A is AOL's advertising business. AOL had acquired Bebo in May.

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 US visitor who visits an approved developer's application.

AOL adds that 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, AOL claims, is making an unprecedented flat-fee commitment to help application developers generate revenue and guarantee monetization of their applications.

Platform-A views social networking applications as an area where it can add significant value by letting developers focus on expanding their install base, without worrying about monetisation 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, 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.