In the first five months of advertising on Facebook applications, Videoegg has paid out over $1.5 million to application developers. If every application on Facebook served up Videoegg ads, that would average out to around $125 per application. Videoegg has just over 100 Facebook applications that it advertises on which results in an average close to $15,000 per application. Not exactly enough to cover a yearly salary.

Videoegg is currently one of the leading Facebook ad networks along with SocialMedia, RockYou, Cubics and a number of others. There are a number of other solutions for application developers but according to many developers that I’ve spoken with, none of them have perfected the system. If you browse through applications you will see ads that say that you have messages in your inbox or that someone thinks you are cute and to click on the ad to find out who.

Videoegg has been able to maintain a high standard for the ads that they serve. Early on, many developers were complaining that VideoEgg was not able to fill all the invetory that applications had though. I have not been hearing the same complaints recently. The total amount being paid by Videoegg alone helps to provide us with estimates of how much is being generated in total by the Facebook economy through advertising.

While thousands of developers are jumping at the opportunity to get a piece of the pie (which in my estimate is less than $20 million in the first 6 months), only a few are succeeding. For those that do succeed, the payout can be substantial. A few of the companies I have spoken with are generating over $1 million a year, enough to maintain a small development firm. It has yet to be proven if advertising will be able to support the rapid growth of social platforms though.