If you’re like most people, you probably wonder how a free service like Facebook makes so much money. Well in 2011 alone, Facebook saw 300 million new users sign up. That’s like the entire population of the United States (minus the 7 million who live in Virginia). By now, advertisers are well aware of the “owned” audience that lives on Facebook, and they want to reach them… bad. Here’s where the money comes in to play. According to the research firm EMarketer Inc. nearly 90% of Facebook’s 2011 sales will come from advertising. (That’s 2 billion, two hundred fifty million dollars in the first 9 months of 2011 alone!)
Now that you understand the importance of ads for Facebook’s pocketbook, you’ll understand why they’ve decided to bring ads to your mobile device (not to mention they need to play catch-up with Google and Apple). From what we hear, Facebook’s mobile ads will probably follow the “Sponsored Stories” format, and will appear in your mobile news feed. Rather than a display ad with “Your Name Here,” users will be notified when their friends interact with a brand. We’re not too sure how people will enjoy these new additions to their news feeds, but we do know that most will complain a lot, and then keep using the service anyway.
Facebook has big plans for the future. We think they might be for some kind of world domination, and if so, 2012 may be the year it happens. After all, a highly anticipated IPO is in the near future (which is said to potentially create 1,000 new millionaires!)
How do you feel about Facebook Ads coming to your mobile device?
