Facebook users accessing the site via a mobile phone will soon be greeted by adverts, says a report.
As early as March, people using Facebook on their phones, could be served adverts, according to an article in the Financial Times. Until now, Facebook has resisted the temptation to sell adverts on either its mobile site or app.
“No one has cracked mobile advertising,” Christian Lindholm, a former Nokia designer told the paper. “The fundamental problem is the lack of screen real estate.”
Facebook declined to comment.
It is unclear as to how the adverts will be displayed and whether they will be on just the mobile phone app, or on the mobile version of the site too.
In 2010 Facebook launched location-based check-in deals, offering members the chance to access to deals depending on their destination. However, it has yet to take off on a large scale or include local vendors across the UK.
Mobile advertising will be a key area of growth for the social network, which has more than 800 million members. However, it is a tough strategy to implement without annoying users.
Facebook’s impending IPO, which is expected to see the company be valued at $100bn, has put it under more pressure to aggressively sell its' users data, according to leading digital agency chiefs.
Despite money generated from advertising accounting for 85 per cent of Facebook’s revenues last year, and its net income in 2011 reaching $1billion, the company will have to radically change the way it cashes in on its users’ data to make good on its valuation, says digital agency heads.
Charlie McGee, head of digital at Carat, a major UK advertising agency, thinks Facebook will follow Google’s AdSense model, and start selling adverts to its members through the 40 million plus sites which have already plugged in Facebook Connect.
“More than 40 million websites have installed the ‘Like’ button across the internet, so the infrastructure and technology is already there for Facebook to start capitalising on its users’ data away from the social networking site,” he told The Telegraph.
McGee is confident that ‘Featured Stories’, which controversially allow brands to advertise using the names of people who actively ‘like them’ on the site in real-time, will be fully rolled out imminently. “These stories will offer greater opportunity for brands to make better use of people’s ‘likes’ and other data in real-time.”
Ben Wood, the managing director of iProspect, a large digital marketing agency, agreed with McGee about Facebook becoming more aggressive in its selling of user’s data and looking to selling adverts off the site too like Google does.
He also said Facebook could start to offer brands video advert options on the site too – in a bid to charge more for adverts. However, Wood thinks Facebook has to tread carefully not to annoy its 800 million members.
“Facebook has to carefully manage that tricky tension between pleasing Wall Street and not commercialising the product so much that it alienates its membership. I also think Facebook could run into trouble if it starts selling adverts based on its users' data away from the site. The rules around cookie laws, especially in the European Union, are getting increasingly difficult.”
In the IPO brochure document, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, makes it clear that the company will favour “rapid innovation and user engagement” over “short-term financial results” to all future shareholders.
However, the pressure to make good on the valuation is a real one now.
Facebook’s impending IPO, which is expected to see the company be valued at $100bn, has put it under more pressure to aggressively sell its' users data, according to leading digital agency chiefs.
Despite money generated from advertising accounting for 85 per cent of Facebook’s revenues last year, and its net income in 2011 reaching $1billion, the company will have to radically change the way it cashes in on its users’ data to make good on its valuation, says digital agency heads.
Charlie McGee, head of digital at Carat, a major UK advertising agency, thinks Facebook will follow Google’s AdSense model, and start selling adverts to its members through the 40 million plus sites which have already plugged in Facebook Connect.
“More than 40 million websites have installed the ‘Like’ button across the internet, so the infrastructure and technology is already there for Facebook to start capitalising on its users’ data away from the social networking site,” he told The Telegraph.
McGee is confident that ‘Featured Stories’, which controversially allow brands to advertise using the names of people who actively ‘like them’ on the site in real-time, will be fully rolled out imminently. “These stories will offer greater opportunity for brands to make better use of people’s ‘likes’ and other data in real-time.”
Ben Wood, the managing director of iProspect, a large digital marketing agency, agreed with McGee about Facebook becoming more aggressive in its selling of user’s data and looking to selling adverts off the site too like Google does.
He also said Facebook could start to offer brands video advert options on the site too – in a bid to charge more for adverts. However, Wood thinks Facebook has to tread carefully not to annoy its 800 million members.
“Facebook has to carefully manage that tricky tension between pleasing Wall Street and not commercialising the product so much that it alienates its membership. I also think Facebook could run into trouble if it starts selling adverts based on its users' data away from the site. The rules around cookie laws, especially in the European Union, are getting increasingly difficult.”
In the IPO brochure document, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, makes it clear that the company will favour “rapid innovation and user engagement” over “short-term financial results” to all future shareholders.
However, the pressure to make good on the valuation is a real one now.
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