What Going Public Makes You Do

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I would recommend paying close attention to the decisions made by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, over the next 12 months. After Facebook’s $5 billion IPO last week, the sudden pressure of answering to shareholders is bound to have some sort of influence on the company, especially a company known for its stubborn and drastic changes to key parts of the social network. Reportedly, there are already some signs that it’s not business as usual.

In the paperwork filed for the public offering, it was reported that over half of Facebook’s current users log on with mobile devices. This is an amazing fact when you consider that it translates to a possible 50% increase in revenue if Facebook implemented any type of advertising on its mobile apps. Something I’m sure shareholders are more than aware of.

And there’s the rub. Because of the limited real estate of a mobile device, if you want to ad advertising, you are going to have to make it much more intrusive than they would normally be; a cardinal sin for any online company concerned about user experience. Apparently Facebook has already responded to this and it looks like they are going to need directions to the closest confessional. It’s been reported that it is already planning to install “featured stories” in the app’s newsfeed.

It will also be interesting to see how this affects Facebook’s particular style of rolling out new features. In that past, Facebook has force fed us new versions of homepages and newsfeeds regardless of backlash. We’ll see if it Zuckerberg retains his steel resolve in the face of toe-tapping and arm crossing shareholders…

Want to find out more online business, then visit Dan Logan’s blog at http://analytics-news.seevolution.com for your needs.