Gavin O'Malley, May 10, 2012, 12:22 PM
Facebook Must Work on Monetizing Mobile TechCunch et al.

Directly due to its mobile shortcomings, Facebook just amended its public offering prospectus to show that it is seeing fewer ads per user.

“In March 2012, we began to include sponsored stories in users’ mobile News Feeds,” the new prospectus explains. “However, 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. We believe this increased usage of Facebook on mobile devices has contributed to the recent trend of our daily active users (DAUs) increasing more rapidly than the increase in the number of ads delivered.”

“Mobile is clearly a huge challenge for Facebook, and something the company sees as its future,” writes The New York Times’ Bits blog. “But it has also acknowledged the difficulties it may face while trying to build a meaningful advertising business on smartphones.”

Facebook also warned that if users continued to increase their mobile usage -- at the expense of PC time -- and if it is “unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users,” the company’s revenue growth will likely be harmed.

“As we noted when Facebook originally filed, it hasn’t proven its ability to monetize mobile yet,” writes TechCrunch. “It now has Sponsored Stories ads running in the mobile news feed, but it can’t show nearly as many ads in this format as it does on the web, where it often shows four to seven ads per page, though less prominently in the sidebar.”

Explains VatorNews: “Facebook has looked at the news feed to inject its paid advertisements rather than banner or side-bar ads but finding the right combination and testing it has not been as quick of a process as some may wish.”

Meanwhile, “Getting serious about mobile was one of the major drivers behind Facebook's $1-billion play to buy mobile photo-sharing app Instagram,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

Read the whole story...
  • Gavin O'Malley, May 10, 2012, 12:28 PM
  • TechCrunch: We're Not For Sale! TechCunch Despite reports to the contrary, TechCrunch says it’s not being sold by parent company AOL. “Instead, we’ve just hired a bunch of brilliant writers and a new COO,” writes Alexia Tsotsis and Eric Eldon in a co-authored post -- and referring to the recent appointment of veteran media exec Ned Desmond. Among other measures of health, Tsotsis and Eldon point to “a resurgence of community support,” and a traffic increase “with regards to unique visits year over year,” while they promise to be “working on getting our pageviews up to pre-awful redesign levels.” Regarding the sale rumors, meanwhile, TechCrunch says they stem from a never-executed idea by AOL execs to turn its tech properties -- including TechCrunch and Engadget -- into a separate entity, which they would have valued at around $200 million. On Wednesday, PandoDaily.com reported that AOL was trying to sell TechCrunch and Engadget, along with some smaller assets like TUAW and Joystiq, for between $70 million to $100 million. Along with a link to Pando’s report, Tsotsis and Eldon scolded: “It’s actually amazing how much bullshit information/spin is out there (so be careful what you believe).” Read the whole story...
  • Mozilla Says Microsoft Fighting Dirty The Wall Street Journal Mozilla Corp. has accused Microsoft of hampering its ability to distribute its Firefox Web browser on devices being designed for the next version of the Windows operating system. The contention “focuses on future tablets and personal computers that exploit chip designs licensed from ARM Holdings PLC -- which are being supported for the first time in the next version of Microsoft's flagship Windows software,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Microsoft has been openly encouraging companies to create apps designed for a new interface it has developed for the operating system. However, Mozilla says the software giant isn’t letting developers make programs designed to work in a more conventional "desktop" mode for Windows on ARM-based devices – thus giving Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser free reign. According to WSJ, Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's general counsel, is comparing the situation to Microsoft actions against browser maker Netscape Communications, which prompted the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998. "We think it's a dangerous precedent," Anderson tells WSJ. Read the whole story...
  • WaPo Unit Takes Digg's Techies The Washington Post As earlier reports predicted, SocialCode -- a social media advertising firm and subsidiary of The Washington Post Co. -- has confirmed hiring away 15 engineers from social news site Digg. Rubbing it in (or just making an accurate assessment of the situation), WaPo writes: “Digg was once one of SiliconValley’s most promising start-ups. But the service, which allows readers to vote on stories and displays the most popular, has declined in recent years as users turned to services such as Reddit or Twitter to distribute news to their friends.” In 2010, Digg downsized its staff from 67 employees to 42, and in March 2011, founder Kevin Rose left the company. Some reports expected The Washington Post Company’s WaPo Labs to take on Digg’s tech team. That division makes products like Trove and The Washington Post’s Social Reader app. “Instead, the team is joining the advertising consulting firm, which helps companies find ways to market their goods and services through Facebook and Twitter,” WaPo writes. Around since early 2011, SocialCode is not acquiring the Digg.com domain, service or technology -- yet members of its leadership team are taking lead roles at SocialCode. For one, Alan Lippman, who had been Digg’s VP of ad products, will be the chief scientist at SocialCode. Read the whole story...