Malaysia Government Spent $590,000 For 6 Facebook Applications

According to a fascinating report over on Free Malaysia Today (update: there’s a cached version here, it seems to have been deleted), Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit told the Malaysian press that a total of RM 1.8 million ($593,000, omg) were spent on six Facebook applications, identified below:

• Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia
• Citrawarna 1Malaysia
• Karnival Jualan Mega 1Malaysia and Karnival Jualan Akhir Tahun
• Festival Pelancongan Seni Kontemporari 1Malaysia
• Kempen 1Malaysia Bersih, 1Malaysia
• Fabulous Food 1Malaysia

“These [RM$1.8 million] cover creative works, concepts and ideas, design, flash programming and coding, testing and debugging, uploading and launching of application, system server development and maintenance, development of database from the contest, campaign management and monitoring as well as online advertisements and fan recruitment in Facebook and Google,” said the deputy minister.

Mamit also pointed out that the Tourism Malaysia page has over 20,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook after its launch on May 21.

Naturally, the excessive amount of money spent on these applications has raised many eyebrows (including mine), especially from DAP-Rasah MP Anthony Loke and Umno-Tangga Batu MP Idris Haji Haron.

To spend $100,000 for each Facebook application is a hard fact to accept. Even non-technical folks would agree. I checked out the Citrawarna 1Malaysia Facebook app and wasn’t very impressed with what was presented, especially considering the $100,000 that was spent on it. The app is basically a game app that works like Tapulous with high scoring gamers having a chance to win iPad 2. To rebut Mamit, Loke said the DAP created similar fan pages and flash applications at no cost. MyPenang, a Facebook page with over 100,000 likes was built organically.

No matter how you look at it, $100,000 for each Facebook app seems like a big waste. If you’re a business owner looking for affordable Facebook applications, you may want to try AppBistro which offers a wide range of apps for various functions.