[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/48279000/jpg/_48279556_facebookmobile.jpg[/img]
[b]Facebook has set out a strategy to make it as dominant a force in the world of mobile as it is in social networking.[/b]
[quote]At the heart of its plans is making the mobile phone a more social experience and offering shopping discounts.
The company announced the opportunity for businesses to offer deals to users via their phone.
Facebook also revealed plans for a single sign-on that lets users log in to applications once with their Facebook name and password.
Third party developers are also being offered the chance to add a social layer to their applications, the company said at an event at its Palo Alto offices.
The bid to combine "mobile, social, local" comes as the number of phones proliferate throughout the world.
More than 200 million people are now using Facebook across various mobile platforms, with the company claiming that this is bigger than the iPhone or Android user base.
A year ago, the social networking giant had 65 million mobile users.
Mobile users are also twice as active on Facebook as people who are logging on via personal computers.
"There is obviously a lot of change in the mobile space and also a revolution happening in the social space," said Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of Facebook.
"What we have seen is you can rethink any product and rethink it to be social. Mobile is a big area of expansion and a huge new space.
"Combining those things together brings big opportunities for new companies to be built and for industries to be disrupted."
[b]Game changer[/b]
Industry watchers at the event said the single biggest disruption that Facebook introduced was the ability for businesses to offer deals to users who check into the site's Places feature.
That product was launched in September and allows users to share with their friends where they are and figure out who is nearby.
One of the first partnerships Facebook announced was with the clothing company Gap. It plans to run a campaign offering a free pair of jeans to the first 10,000 users who check in to their local Gap store using Facebook's mobile application.
In total, Facebook has partnered with 22 major retailers including H&M, Starbucks, McDonalds and the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.
Small and medium sized businesses with a Facebook page will also be able to offer deals through Facebook's mobile application.
"This deals product is a game changer," said Augie Ray from analyst firm Forrester.
"When you consider that check-in sites like Foursquare has five million users and Facebook has 500 million, you begin to get a sense of where this can scale.
"While so many people were eager to try out Facebook Places, it didn't become that widely adopted because there was no end benefit to the user. That all changes now and helps make Facebook the dominant force on mobile right now," Mr Ray told BBC News.
Susan Etlinger, a senior analyst with Altimeter Group, said the deals feature takes Facebook in a whole new direction.
"Facebook is moving into social commerce for real. This will take Facebook out of its comfort zone in a lot of ways and bring them closer to brands.
"They need to be careful. The first group of deals looks nice and looks like they offer value. They will have to continue to maintain that experience because they have a lot of brand equity riding on this," Ms Etlinger added.
Google and Yahoo are also aggressively trying to tap into users on the go and competing for a share of the growing mobile advertising market.
Analysts have estimated that mobile advertising revenue in the US, for example, will rise to $3.1bn (£1.9bn) in 2013 from $320m in 2009.[/quote]
[B]Source:[/B] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11681462[/url]
facebook is like aids, a disease that constantly evolves and is spread by teen angst and games that should never be played.
[editline]4th November 2010[/editline]
[in africa]
[QUOTE=Mattk50;25845998]facebook is like aids, a disease that constantly evolves and is spread by teen angst and games that should never be played.
[editline]4th November 2010[/editline]
[in africa][/QUOTE]
Teen angst?
Wow, you have no idea what you're talking about.
[QUOTE=Mattk50;25845998]facebook is like aids, a disease that constantly evolves and is spread by teen angst and games that should never be played.
[editline]4th November 2010[/editline]
[in africa][/QUOTE]the 500 million + people who use facebook are all teenagers??
[QUOTE=Mattk50;25845998]facebook is like aids, a disease that constantly evolves and is spread by teen angst and games that should never be played.
[editline]4th November 2010[/editline]
[in africa][/QUOTE]
You must be jealous as fuck that people on Facebook actually have more than 15 friends
[QUOTE=Mattk50;25845998]facebook is like aids, a disease that constantly evolves and is spread by teen angst and games that should never be played.
[editline]4th November 2010[/editline]
[in africa][/QUOTE]
A+ Poster, would read post again.
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;25846082]You must be jealous as fuck that people on Facebook actually have more than 15 friends[/QUOTE]
They're not real friends.
Okay guys back on topic ignore the retard.
They already got some inroads here, considering how many people have facebook and twitter updates sent to their phone through text messaging or an application. I don't like how they'll be able to crawl into your personal information even more though. Advertisers must be getting all giddy over the potential of social media for that.
[QUOTE=MercZ;25857901]They already got some inroads here, considering how many people have facebook and twitter updates sent to their phone through text messaging or an application. I don't like how they'll be able to crawl into your personal information even more though. Advertisers must be getting all giddy over the potential of social media for that.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080409152057/en.futurama/images/d/d7/Scammer_aliens.JPG[/img]
Information?!!?
[QUOTE=IStanI;25846398]They're not real friends.[/QUOTE]
Maybe to you because you have no real friends, but not everyone just adds anyone they want
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