Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), for 2013, is mainly looking to work on three main areas. The first is to improve its mobile experience for the nearly 700 million users of its service. Though the company has worked to make its mobile apps faster and more reliable in 2012, but in 2013, it looks to improve it further.
The second area will be designing new experiences using its Social Graph, which could be used by third parties also. The third area will be to invest in the methods that will help it monetize its products and find new ways to reach consumers and market their product offerings. A report from Morgan Stanley does not expect the company to monetize Graph Search in the near term, but “expect[s] to see more products resembling mobile app install ads.”
Users logging into Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) mainly assumes that Facebook fits in well with brand advertising, “where marketers aim to subtly influence a purchasing decision that may not happen right away,” says the report from MS. The social networker was encouraged with the Newsfeed optimizations that boosted the likes by 50% on average. The company believes the Newsfeed campaigns should closely resemble the organic posts above and below them, instead of directly pitching for sales. The social networker has witnessed very little negative impact from the introduction of Newsfeed ads to its users, despite an increase in ad loads, says report.
To take on the local social incumbents in Russia, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) plans to design the same “viral conditions” for growth as it did in Brazil. Instagram was viewed as a potential competitor by Facebook, which “led to its acquisition” says the MS report. As per the report, the company plans to boost investment in analytics, and at the same time is looking for value in the third “party analytics companies that validate its own findings.”
To strengthen its ad serving and analytics business, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced Yesterday its decision to acquire Microsoft’s Atlas. Terms of the deal and the likely closing date for the acquisition are still to be announced.
The report from Morgan Stanley does a SWOT analysis of Facebook. As per the analysis, its main strengths include: leader in social networking, robust data assets etc. The threats given by the report should be seriously taken by the company as it will help it work on the problems before they begin to have an effect on its business. The threats listed include, problem monetizing in developing countries, privacy regulations etc.
