One point five billion dollars.

That’s how much venture capital the top three venture-funded, Internet-based companies have raised between them.  And over 70% of it was dedicated to backing the growing wonder we call social media.

So far, Facebook holds the honor of being the most widely VC-backed social media site in history.  With over $670 million dollars invested by venture capitalists to date, only four companies have ever received more VC funds.  Those companies include communications, broadband, and energy firms, all of which have little in common with the likes of Facebook.

But what about the other $400 million in social-media VC funds?  Did that money go to MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn or Bebo?

Surprisingly, none of those popular sites was deemed worthy of so vast an investment.  Instead, that particular $400M venture capital bet was placed on Zynga, a San Francisco, California based developer of social gaming applications.

Best known as the company that  brought MafiaWars and Farmville among the ranks of the most popular Facebook games ever, Zynga’s growth has been nothing short of remarkable.  In addition to its ability to attract the attention of venture capitalists (Japan’s Softbank, for example, invested $147M in July) Zynga is also active with acquisitions it makes on its own.  In August of 2010, Zynga acquired Unoh, a Tokyo company specializing in mobile game development.

Of course, Zynga has plenty of competition out there when it comes to Facebook game and applications development.  Companies like Avenue Social, (www.avenuesocial.com) the creative source behind popular Facebook games like Cold War Clambake, could well be the next target venture capitalists place in their sights.

With the continued success of social media-related companies like Facebook, Zynga and Avenue Social, there could be a lot more venture capital directed toward mobile communications and the Internet in general.  And at the current pace, it won’t be long before the most well-funded companies on the planet are either directly involved in social media, or using it as their primary means of promotion and marketing.

You can take that all the way to the venture capital bank.

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