Facebook is poised to enter the mobile advertising race, boosting the social networking giant's revenue stream in advance of its much-anticipated initial public offering, Bloomberg reports.
Citing two sources with knowledge of Facebook's plans, the report states the company is expected to roll out mobile ad services by the end of March 2012. Facebook originally planned to introduce the mobile ad platform earlier this year and the project could face additional delays, one of the sources adds. Among the proposals under discussion: Inserting Facebook's Sponsored Stories ads--which spotlight friends' interactions with brands--directly into the mobile News Feed, which enables users to view status updates, photos and other content. Facebook declined comment.
Research firm IDC reports that Google's AdMob currently controls 24 percent of the mobile advertising segment, followed by independent Millennial Media at 17 percent and Apple's iAd at 15 percent. But Facebook could emerge as a viable competitor if it leverages information about users, their interests and their contacts to help marketers deliver more targeted mobile campaigns.
Late last month, The Wall Street Journal reported Facebook is moving closer to an initial public offering that would value the social networking giant at more than $100 billion--sources familiar with the matter say the firm is looking to go public between April and June 2012 and expects to raise $10 billion. Although Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly expressed his reluctance to take the company public, insiders say he is warming the idea, with Facebook currently in internal discussions over the timing of its Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Facebook's worldwide advertising revenues are on pace to reach $3.8 billion this year, up from $1.86 billion in 2010, according to data compiled by eMarketer. Although Wall Street has hotly anticipated a Facebook IPO for several years, investors continue to debate the long-term viability of other web juggernauts. Daily deals platform Groupon, which floated an $805 million IPO earlier this month, has seen its shares drop 42 percent in the past five days, while shares of business networking site LinkedIn have fallen 36 percent since May 2011, although it remains 33 percent above its IPO. The introduction of a mobile advertising platform could erase some investor doubts.
Facebook now tops 800 million users worldwide, with more than 350 million users accessing the platform via mobile device each month. In September, Nielsen stated Facebook is now the most popular mobile app across all operating systems.
