Facebook plans to build a $1.5 billion data center in Altoona, Iowa, joining its existing facilities in Prineville, Ore.; Forest City, N.C.; and Luleå, Sweden, the Des Moines Register reported.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Facebook is going public with the results of its efficiency efforts at its data centers in Prineville, Ore., and Forest City, N.C., debuting two public dashboards that display real-time data for the data centers’ PUE (power usage effectiveness) and WUE (water usage effectiveness) levels.
Wrapp, which allows Facebook users to send free and paid electronic gift cards to their friends, has said that three new retailers have joined the fold: Victoria’s Secret, American Apparel, and Little Black Bag. Using Facebook as a platform, Wrapp noted that 1.25 million users of its iOS and Android applications have given 11.5 million digital gift cards — seen by 122 million Facebook users.
Wrapp, a mobile social gifting application, connects Facebook users through gift cards. If a user wants to celebrate a Facebook friend’s new job, or thinks they could use something from a store, he or she can send a gift card through Wrapp. So far, it has become quite popular. Wrapp announced that since its launch a little over a year ago, users have redeemed more than 1 million gift cards.
Since 2010, PayPal has been one of the main methods of payment for Facebook developers. But as Facebook grows, the company is changing its PayPal policies for new developers in emerging markets, such as China, Brazil, and India. According to TechCrunch, developers in several countries must show extra identification as a means of authentication, such as photo IDs or incorporation papers, in order to be paid via direct deposit.
While Facebook users continue to spread false information about privacy on Facebook, officials in Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are taking a very real look at recent announcements by the social network.
Facebook’s trademark color may be blue, but it’s also known for being green. New figures released Wednesday by the social network show that 23 percent of the company’s energy is renewable. Facebook is also continuing to seek ways to cut back its carbon emissions and increase the percentage of energy coming from clean, renewable sources.
Swedes log on to the site an average of 6.1 times a day, according to an infographic from Pingdom based on a study by the University of Gothenburg.
A new entry into the Facebook gift card sector will arrive in the U.S. this spring, by way of Sweden: Wrapp, which has been up and running in its native country since November 15.
Facebook will follow up its announcement of a European data center in Luleå, Sweden, with a similar initiative in Asia, at Central Taiwan Science Park.
