Zuck’s tour of the Red Menace just became zanier: after meeting with Russia’s Prime Minister and giving him a t-shirt emblazoned with his Facebook URL, the IPO baller sat down with Russia’s Jimmy Fallon. It’s kind of hard to watch! More »
Facebook CEO & founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Moscow, Russia today to talk with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about building a possible Facebook research center in Russia. Medvedev pitched to Zuckerberg that not only is Russia abundant with natural resources, but the country’s IT sector is also something that’s quickly gaining ground.
Zuckerberg traded in his zip-up hoodie and jeans for a formal suit as he spent the day with Medvedev. Zuckerberg was in Moscow to increase Facebook’s presence in Russia, where it competes with local social networking sites. He was also in Russia to attend a programming symposium where he would look to attract Russians to work for his social networking site.
However, it turns out that not all Russians were happy with Zuckerberg’s visit. Oleg Kozyrev, a popular opposition blogger in Russia, launched a Facebook group called “Zuckerberg, don’t be friends with a dictator!”, where he urged Zuckerberg to meet with officials who don’t “jail Russian bloggers and create laws on internet censorship.”
Then again, Zuckerberg wasn’t planning on meeting any other officials or big names, like Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, or even Russia’s richest man, Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov invested in Facebook in 2009 and made $1 billion selling his shares this year. It seems that Facebook’s plans to grow in Russia are still being discussed, so don’t expect anything substantial to happen to the social network anytime in the near future.
[via Reuters]
Zuckerberg visits Russia for Facebook talks is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Do you want to know what power is? Power is going up on a stage, yammering about very little for half an hour, and boom, a few days later your company is worth nearly $7 BILLION more than it was a few days ago. More »
It’s common knowledge by now that Facebook‘s stock could be doing a whole lot better. Its stock price has been consistently falling ever since Facebook’s IPO in May, partly over investor concerns that the company wasn’t doing enough to make money from mobile users. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg got up on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, making his first appearance since Facebook went public. His discussion was filled with admissions of failure, but Zuckerberg also looked toward the future, talking about what Facebook is going to do to turn its fortunes in the mobile arena around.
Some of that is already underway, but for the most part, Zuckerberg‘s plans for the future of Facebook on mobile devices have yet to play out. Still, his optimism during his appearance yesterday seems to have inspired something in Facebook’s investors, as the company’s stock price actually climbed a bit today. Mercury News says that Facebook’s stock climbed $1.50 today, ending the day at $20.93. That means that Facebook’s stock has made gains two days in a row, as the company’s stock price also rose slightly on Tuesday in anticipation of Zuckerberg’s appearance.
That $1.50 gain resulted in Facebook’s market share growing by a whopping $4 billion in a single day, which is definitely a big win for the company. That gain is needed to, as Facebook’s stock has slipped quite far from its initial $38 price, falling to as low as $18 last week. It seems that investors like Zuckerberg’s plan for the future, so now all he needs to do is stick to it and things should begin looking up on a more regular basis.
That’s easier said than done, however, and Zuckerberg and the rest of the people at Facebook definitely have their work cut out for them. One thing is for sure though: Zuckerberg knows where Facebook went wrong in the mobile space, and now we’re seeing him get serious about turning it around. Stay tuned, because this could be a big turning point for the struggling social network.
Facebook stock rises after Zuckerberg’s comments on mobile is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It isn’t exactly a secret that Facebook is struggling in the mobile realm, something that the company’s shareholders aren’t too crazy about. Facebook’s stock has dropped quite a bit since its IPO thanks largely to shareholder concerns about mobile users, and today, Mark Zuckerberg is tackling these issues at the the TechCrunch Disrupt SF conference. This is the first appearance by Zuckerberg since Facebook went public, and he’s using the opportunity to be honest with himself about the shortcomings of Facebook on mobile, and what the company plans to do to change that.
Speaking to Michael Arrington, Zuckerberg noted the potential of mobile as the main platform for accessing Facebook. He says that mobile users access Facebook more often than those using a computer, which means that mobile ads do better than the ads on the main Facebook page do – the problem is that mobile ads aren’t integrated as well as ads on the main site. Oh, and for the record, Zuckerberg once again quashed any rumors about an incoming Facebook phone, saying that the company’s three main focuses when it comes to mobile are mobile web, iOS, and Android.
Zuckerberg also admitted that one of the biggest problems with Facebook on mobile was that the company relied too much on HTML5. Things are looking up in that respect, however, as apparently the update to the new native iOS app has resulted in mobile users viewing twice as many stories in their news feed. That’s definitely an improvement, and Zuckerberg says that he expects a “lot of really cool stuff” to happen with Facebook’s mobile offerings in the next six months.
Finally, Zuckerberg said that mobile is the way of the future for the company, as Facebook stands to make more money on mobile than it does on desktop. While that’s true in theory, given that a large number of Facebook’s users access the site through mobile devices, in practice its proving to be much harder for the company. The question now is: how will Facebook make that significant amount of money from mobile ads? That has yet to be fully answered, but after this talk, it at least seems that Facebook is heading in the right direction. Stay tuned.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg talks mobile shortcomings, plans for the future is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Remember the days before Facebook’s iOS app ditched HTML 5 and sped things up with some native code? It turns out that there’s some regret in Menlo Park about relying on the web markup language. Betting on HTML 5 for the app is “one of the biggest mistakes if not the biggest strategic mistakes we’ve ever made,” Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt today. The firm’s CEO also mentioned that new features will be making their way to the app and a snappier Android version is coming down the pike “when it’s done.”
Filed under: Internet
Zuckerberg: betting on HTML 5 for Facebook mobile app was a ‘mistake,’ native Android version on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While Mark’s network had already flipped the App Center switch in a number of parts around the globe, there was still a large chunk of its abundant user base missing out on the recently unveiled application hub. That’s all about to change starting today, however, as a Facebook rep has announced on Twitter the social app shop is now available to every single one of its signees worldwide. In other words, this means now you’ll have yet another thing to keep track of during your daily internet browsing routine.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software
Facebook App Center goes full circle, rolls out to all users worldwide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Facebook may have delivered a decent quarterly financial report yesterday, but that apparently did little to quell investor concerns about the company, which only went public earlier this year. Facebook’s stock took another tumble today, falling $3.03 to $23.81. That 11.3% decrease in stock price led to Facebook’s stock hitting a new all-time low, and it doesn’t seem like the stock is going to recover anytime soon.
Despite the fact that Facebook did post a profit and did report a growth in the number of users for Q2, that apparently wasn’t enough for Facebook’s investors. Revenue did grow in Q2, but not as much as it did in Q1, which gave investors some cause for concern. That isn’t the major problem Facebook’s investors have with the company’s direction, however, as it seems that many of them are concerned about Facebook’s mobile ad growth. As far as they’re concerned, Facebook isn’t making nearly enough money from mobile advertisements, while more and more Facebook users are accessing their profiles from mobile devices.
The result is a stock price that now sits at nearly 40% below the price it started at when Facebook initially went public. Any way you slice it, that isn’t good for the company or current investors – though it may be good news for those waiting to jump in when the price is low. Indeed, CNET is reporting that this week has taken quite the toll on Mark Zuckerberg’s pocketbook, with the Facebook founder losing a mind-numbing $3 billion since Wednesday. It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride for Facebook in the coming weeks and months, but at the very least, it should be pretty interesting for outside observers.
[via USA Today]
Facebook stock hits new low as Zuckerberg loses billions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Facebook hosted its first earnings conference call today since the company went public earlier this year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked the conference by discussing the company’s overall business plan and vision for the future. Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of building its mobile platform saying that it is one of the company’s top priorities right now. The young CEO also said that the social network is now working on ways to generate more revenue from mobile ads. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook CEO gets his first patent on privacy, Facebook CEO says adapting to mobile devices is the company’s biggest challenge,
Facebook revealed its Q1 earnings in an SEC filing leading up to its big IPO earlier this year, but it’s now officially out with its first earnings report as a public company. For Q2 of 2012, it brought in $1.18 billion in revenue, up 32 percent year-over-year and slightly better than what analysts were expecting, while GAAP net income sat at a loss of $157 million (down from a profit of $240 million a year ago). Looking at things on a non-GAAP basis, though, net income is actually up from $285 million to $295 million.
What’s more, the company also confirmed that it has 955 million monthly active users (or what it calls MAUs) as of the end of June, up 29 percent year-over-year. As you can see in the chart after the break, those users are distributed fairly evenly across the world, including 186 million in the US and Canada, 246 million in Europe, 255 million in Asia, and 268 million elsewhere. Daily active users totaled 552 million for the same time period, up 32 percent year-over-year, while mobile users now stand at 543 million, up 67 percent from last year. Not surprisingly, a huge chunk — 84 percent — of the company’s revenue comes from advertising, which brought in $992 million for the quarter, an increase of 28 percent from last year. That apparently wasn’t enough to please investors, though, who have sent the company’s stock to a new low of less than $25 (down over ten percent) in after hours trading.
Update: Expectedly, the ever-recurring topic of a Facebook phone came up during the Q&A portion of the company’s earnings call, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t avoid the issue entirely. While not completely dismissing recent rumors of an HTC-built phone, Zuckerberg did say that building a whole phone “really wouldn’t make much sense for us to do.”
Filed under: Internet
Facebook posts first earnings as a public company: $1.18 billion in revenue, 955 million users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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