Facebook took the wraps off its long-awaited mobile advertising network, called "Audience Network," a product that enables Facebook to sell ads in mobile applications besides its own. For example, Coca Cola can show ads on a mobile game that a Facebook user has downloaded on his or her phone.
The service will increase its competition with Google, which dominates the mobile advertising market and has its own ad network. Twitter is expected to announce its own, too.
Facebook's share of the $9.7 billion US mobile advertising market was 16 per cent last year, according to eMarketer, compared with 41 per cent for Google. This year, Google's share is expected to slide to under 38 per cent, while Facebook's should increase to nearly 18 per cent, according to the research firm.
The company also introduced "app links," an open-source tool for developers to link mobile apps together. Without this, clicking on a link on a mobile device takes people to a website rather than a mobile app, even if that app is already installed on the phone. Or in the case of iPhone users, for example, clicking on a map inside Yelp to get directions to a restaurant will open up Apple's maps app, even if the user wants Google instead.
App links will work across all devices, whether they are made by Google, Apple or Microsoft. The app links tool is free to developers. Kirkpatrick compared it to Internet.org, the Facebook-led venture that seeks connect every person in the world to the Internet.
Comments
0 comment