Today, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is expected to announce its Q2 results, and I doubt whether, anyone would bet against a dismal performance from the social media giant’s adverting revenue via mobile platforms. However, Facebook will not be lying down on its back to watch this potent channel for income generation wither amongst the likes of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has taken its relationship with mobile phone maker, HTC Corp (TPE:2498), to another level after an announcement stating it will be partnering the Taiwan based mobile phone maker, in its bid to come up with its own smart phone, Bloomberg reported. According to the report, Facebook Smart Phone is expected to hit the market by Mid 2013. Apparently, Facebook has been trying to engage deeply in the mobile ads without success, something that has now, prompted it to opt for its own smart phone.
The mobile platform offers great advertising opportunity, with more than 90% of the total smart phone audience untapped. According to a report released by Scribd, TV advertising is nearly saturated while print is over used. Furthermore, Radio and Internet present little window of opportunity, with approximately 26% and 15% opportunity respectively. Additionally, recent statistics indicate that, more than 50% of Facebook users have shifted their activity on the social media site to the mobile platform. An article published at Nanigans reports that, over 500,000 out of the 901 million monthly Facebook users, use the mobile platforms.
Illustratively, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has every, reason to launch its own smart phone. According to comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR)’s mobile Metrix 2.0 data, the social media network giant is the most engaging to users of smart phone social network applications. This means that once a user has opened a social media site, that is, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare or Tumblr, he or she is likely to spend more time on Facebook, as compared to the other sites. The report indicates that Facebook also leads in the chart for unique traffic, with 78 million visitors per month. The table below details the traffic distribution from U.S users, for selected social media sites.
| Selected Social Networking Properties (Mobile Browser and App Audience Combined) March 2012 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Age 18+ on iOS, Android and RIM Platforms Source: comScore Mobile Metrix 2.0 |
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| Total Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | Average Minutes per Visitor | |
| 78,002 | 80.4% | 441.3 | |
| 25,593 | 26.4% | 114.4 | |
| 7,624 | 7.9% | 12.9 | |
| 7,493 | 7.7% | 52.9 | |
| Foursquare | 5,495 | 5.7% | 145.6 |
| Tumblr | 4,454 | 4.6% | 68.4 |
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will be entering in another type of business, which has attracted a number of tech giants in the recent past. Microsoft joined the bandwagon of mobile device competition, when it launched it’s Surface tablet, which was closely followed by Google with its Nexus 7 tab, as previously reported in our articles. Consequently, as per the various statistics exhibited herein, it wont be long before businesses jump into this untapped, promising channel of advertising. This is therefore, an opportune time for the tech giant to strategically, place itself as the world becomes more mobile.
Furthermore, the partnership with HTC will also be a boost, to the mobile phone maker as it looks to recoup some of its lost market share, which now stands at 4.8%, down from 8.9%, according to Bloomberg reports. Facebook’s stock closed at $29.34 yesterday, while HTC was down 3.00 Taiwanese dollars or 1.06%, to trade at 279.00 TWD per share, or U.S $9.25, at the time of this writing.
