Build Locally, Grow Globally

More than 80% of the people on Facebook are based outside of the U.S., providing developers with the opportunity to reach a global audience through their apps. Today at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam, start ups from around the world are launching timeline apps to do just that, including donation site JustGiving (U.K.), travel planning site Tripbirds (Sweden), premium television site Canal+ (France), and iOS video editor app Magisto (Israel).

Since Open Graph launched four months ago, developers have been growing their timeline apps internationally across web and mobile. For example, last month, there were around one and a half billion shares from Spotify (Luxembourg) to Facebook. Also, in the past month, Deezer (France) has seen a 300% increase in traffic from Facebook mobile, and is growing by 200,000 new Facebook users per week.

These start ups are continuing the momentum started by game developers such as Wooga (Berlin) and King.com (London) who grew to reach tens of millions of users after building their businesses on Facebook, each hitting the top five list of game developers on Facebook in less than a year.

Wooga reaches more than 45 million users each month through mobile and Facebook.com games such as Diamond Dash, and King.com recently hit 42 million monthly active users (10 million come back daily), with games like Bubble Witch Saga.

Similarly, U.S.-based start ups are building locally and growing globally through Facebook:

• Fab.com: One month after launching its timeline app and doubling its referral traffic from Facebook, design marketplace Fab.com acquired Casacanda, a top flash sale site that served Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Since the acquisition and launch of Fab.de, Fab.com's German site has grown to 500,000 users, adding 300,000 in just the 40 days.

• Gogobot: The social travel site recently launched its first office in London to keep pace with its rapid user growth. In the three months since launching its timeline app, Gogobot's user base has grown by more than 50%, with nearly 45% of that growth coming from the top economies in Europe.

Here’s the full list of timeline apps featured today at The Next Web conference, totaling 18 companies that span 11 countries : afisha.ru, Amen, Canal+, Corriere, JustGiving, Le Figaro, Le Monde, LiveSport, Look, Magisto, Muzu.TV, Onet, RTVE, Sky Italia, Stern, Tripbirds, Vox.io, and WP.PL.

For more information on how to get started building timeline apps, see our Open Graph checklist, best practices and tutorial.