Amid the notable hype surrounding the filing of the initial public offering (IPO) by Facebook, one of the biggest shortcomings of the popular social network has come to the fore --- that of its need to bank heavily on advertising in order to monetize its fast-growing mobile user base!
Even though Facebook reported its astounding financial figures last week, the spotlight has now shifted to possible measures which the company may adopt for solving the issue of monetizing its mobile user base via advertising; as well as on which of future stockholders will want addressed.
The issue at hand is a rather tough one for Facebook, especially in the wake of the fact that the social network is yet to come up with a way to make real money from the ‘mobile’ option, despite the fact that over 50 percent of the Facebook users log into the service on a mobile device.
With mobile computing making notable a headway in the present day computing scenario, monetizing its mobile user base is of the key issues faced by Facebook, more so as cellphones are chiefly used for Internet access in countries like Brazil, Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela where Facebook is witnessing stupendous growth at present.
Acknowledging the fact that it was currently struggling to translate the success of its Web site to mobile devices, Facebook said in its review of the risks it faces: “We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven.”