Following its mammoth IPO filing last week, Facebook is reportedly looking to introduce new methods to monetise its mobile platform, by introducing mobile ads as early as next month.
In the documents that accompanied the social giant's IPO listing, it was revealed that Facebook has over 425 million mobile users - half of its total active user base of 850 million users worldwide.
Facebook has, however, also highlighted a potential concern for investors, stating it is yet to generate any meaningful income from its mobile services. "If users continue to increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetisation strategies for our mobile users, our revenue and financial results may be negatively affected."
According to the Financial Times, sources close to Facebook have confirmed the social network will begin showing ads to mobile users in the coming weeks. It is said these will take the form of “featured stories”, where brands pay to have people's endorsements or interactions with them highlighted in users' news feeds. Featured stories first appeared in the desktop version of Facebook at the end of last year.
Following suit
While there is speculation the introduction of featured stories to the mobile platform could further fuel the current discontent over the significant changes that have already been implemented by Facebook, the new strategy is not dissimilar to that of Twitter.
Much like Facebook, half of Twitter's active users also access the service via mobile. In December last year, Twitter also released an update to its mobile app that allowed marketers to advertise on the platform.
Last year, a survey by Lab42 on Twitter users' reactions to “promoted tweets”, showed only 11% of users found them to be annoying. A further 22% of respondents said they had actually found a special offer or discount via a promoted tweet.
It will remain to be seen how Facebook users will react to the changes to its mobile service. A recent poll by SodaHead showed that, of the 1 327 respondents, 70% said they would ditch the new Timeline profile if they could. Only 20% said they like it, while 10% didn't use Facebook.
Share