Facebook Dismisses Phone Rumor

[cereal killer]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that "building out a whole phone wouldn't make any sense" for the social media company. This should put to rest all the rumors of a Facebook Smartphone being developed for consumers. Also of interest coming out of the conference call was the company's expressed optimism about its ability to generate advertising from the 543 million users who access the site on mobile devices, a 67% gain from a year ago. Execs said the "Sponsored Stories" ads introduced last month have generated $1 million a day with about 50% coming from mobile devices. If you are familiar with Facebook, but unfamiliar with the term Sponsored Stories, you have already been exposed to them.

Sponsored Stories appear in the user's news feed. If one or more of a user's friends has "liked" a particular brand, the user sees an item about that action in his news feed. The ads receive more prominent positioning in the news feed than other content.

Facebook won't be able to bet on Sponsored Stories as its main mobile advertising offering for long, said analysts. "I think Facebook is going to have to find a different way to monetize mobile that isn't about little display ads" said Melissa Parrish, an analyst at Forrester Research. Chris Silva, of Altimeter Group, called Sponsored Stories "blunt instruments" and that Facebook is leading now for lack of anybody coming along and innovating."

It is quite clear that Facebook has it's work cut out for them as the mobile space continues to evolve and grow in regards to monetizing ads.

Via: NY Times

[NeoPhoenixTE]

Well, that's a relief. I was concerned about how the public would handle a Facebook phone. Mind you, I had similar feelings about Amazon getting into the tablet market, and still have similar feelings about Amazon developing a full on phone....

Starts to remind me of Sega's shorter-lived console empire. Software can still keep ya in business, and Sega remains in business as a software company. Facebook should probably do the same.

[52brandon]

Well, that's a relief. I was concerned about how the public would handle a Facebook phone. Mind you, I had similar feelings about Amazon getting into the tablet market, and still have similar feelings about Amazon developing a full on phone....

Starts to remind me of Sega's shorter-lived console empire. Software can still keep ya in business, and Sega remains in business as a software company. Facebook should probably do the same.

I dunno what happened with Sega. Genesis was HUGE, Saturn flopped, but Dreamcast was HUGE. Hell, I bought an XBOX because I was already familiar with the controls because of Dreamcast