Facebook may be growing out of proportion, but it has not found appropriate ways to make money out of its following especially of the large mobile user base. Even the towering IPO did not seem to affect much. By 2014, Facebook is touted to get to the milestone of three billion users, and the mobile population is the key to the long-term success of the social networking giant.
Finding Mobile Users Who Pay
Now there are five billion mobile connections across the globe, which will rise to 10 billion in 2016, spread over 8 billion mobile gadgets according to Cisco. Facebook can be installed in all of them and but it must make its effort more intense. Moreover, the market is actually the smartphone users among them. In addition, so that leads us to clear conclusion users of feature phone in the emerging market like Asia or elsewhere is the key. As much as 90 percent of mobile uses in countries as India and China do not use smartphones, this figure is below 50 in the US and the developing world. Social services can ignore feature phone users in countries such as the US but not clearly in the developing world. Today’s feature phone users are tomorrow’s smartphone users. So develop their attention and you will invest considerable in the massive mobile market.
Making Money from Mobile
Facebook has set up a sizeable money-generating scheme from the web users, for example, the average revenue per user from US web users is about $4. However, the ad revenue scheme will not work with mobile users and Facebook has to explore other possibilities like collaborating with mobile carriers. In emerging markets like Asia making money out of apps and in-app purchases are not viable as of now as most of the users do not opt for it, immensely few of them have their credit card information at Google Play. In fact, that many people do not use credit cards is the fact.
Facebook must focus on feature phone that have a data plan and prepare a tie up with the mobile carriers that will allow users to make app and in-app purchases using their carrier plan. This will help to generate money from the large user base using feature phones and will gradually seep down to the increasing smartphone user base.
Another factor here is to integrate tightly with users who do not have a data plan this is where monetizing must start because Asian smartphone boom is the future. Allowing uses on feature phones that do not have a data plan to login through USSD and retrieve news feeds through voice and SMS networks is a catch. Those users may be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee also! However, a deal with carriers must happen through.
What Facebook is doing?
Facebook has been pushing to exploit the earnest money prospects in the emerging markets, but it should do more. Facebook has acquired Snaptu, a popular feature phone app which has got over 90 million likes and launched Facebook for Every Phone last year, which for the first 90 days, was arranged to be free for many carriers around the world. They have also released the Facebook camera app for smartphone users and improved on the News Feed. Facebook has collaborated with several carriers, to promote free Facebook access for users on the carrier network. Nevertheless, with such strategies, users are getting a scent of what is to develop and this has been an excellent platform to build upon and must not be left out.
Author Bio:
This guest post has been written by Ritu Sharma who recommends cheapwebhosting blog for web hosting reviews and recommends Windows 8 update as a great blog for reviewing startups.
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That’s because there are phone features that may not be able to contest with what Facebook has to offer. But it doesn’t mean that you have to buy the priciest smart phones just to keep in touch with your readers and friends on Facebook. I still enjoy a good desktop that sits in my home office for five years!
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A very relevant share. I agree that the Facebook somewhat gets restricted and based upon the characteristics of the phone of the user. But, it does not purely depend on the features of the phone, Facebook offers a lot even for those who can’t afford Smartphones. Thanks.
A significant shared article you have there, thanks so much. Yes, it might be a bit frustrating but sometimes, the way you could enjoy Facebook depends on the capacity of your phone to handle the site. But if you use a desktop, you won’t have any qualms with it.
Because there may be some applications of the social networking site that may not work for one’s phone, which is a complete jeezer sometimes.
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Thanks to technology we’re all on our smartphones, tablets and what-have-you. Sooner or later we’ll have the world at the tips of our fingers. Facebook is definitely going to be around for a long time, making it a must for everyone to have an account. It’s a good thing they’re not laid-back in initiating new ideas and platforms for their users.