Buddy Media launches another “social media” ad network, raises $6.5M

Buddy Media is a small player in the game of trying to build businesses on Facebook’s developer platform, and on other social network platforms, but it has big plans.

Today, it is rolling out an ad network of its own — meaning it is competing against fairly established companies like RockYou, Social Media, Lookery and others. It has also raised a $6.5 million round of funding led by Softbank Capital, with participation from European Founders Fund, GreyCroft Partners, and angel investors including Ron Conway.

New York-based Buddy Media, the maker of virtual Facebook currency “Acebucks,” bought a set of small applications built by ChipIn, last January, in a bid to grow bigger in the face of market leaders like Slide and Rockyou.

Adonomics, an analytics service for Facebook applications, says Buddy Media has the 33rd largest reach on Facebook, with 5,894,851 total installs and 63,985 daily active users. Adonomics has been criticized for overvaluing Facebook applications (it values Slide at $318 million, for example). But the only people upset about BuddyMedia’s valuation here will be the company itself and its investors: Adonomics pegs it at $964,469.

However, as one of Buddy’s investors says, the company has been approached to do strategic deals with larger companies and instead had its pick of term sheets. The market here is young, there’s still lots of opportunity, and maybe Buddy can yet carve a space out for itself.