Around 65% of Facebook’s users worldwide access Facebook using smartphones
and tablets (about 40% in the United States). Worldwide, 700 million access
Facebook from their smartphones. Mobile device users spend about 23% of their time
on e-mail, and 15% of their time on Facebook (comScore/Facebook, 2012). Users
download a Facebook app to their mobile devices to gain access to the mobile interface.
Users can also access Facebook using their mobile browser although it is slower.
In 2013, about 30% of Facebook ad revenue will come from its mobile ad platform,
and it is the fastest growing revenue stream for Facebook. Therefore, Facebook has
declared that mobile is its future (Hof, 2013). In 2012, Facebook introduced Facebook
Home, which is an app that overlays the Android screen and becomes the smartphone
interface for users. Facebook Home has not received widespread use. Mobile app
install ads are those paid for by Facebook’s 3,500 mobile app developers to persuade
users to install their app.
Because the smartphone screen is much smaller than regular computer screens,
there is no room for Marketplace Ads on the right, so all mobile ads need to be
displayed in the users’ News Feed. Mobile ads can include many of the ad formats
described above, including Marketplace Ads, Sponsored Stories, and Promoted Posts.
Critics complain that the number of ads in the mobile News Feed becomes distracting
and annoying. Mobile ads often take up the entire screen. There also is far less
targeting of mobile ads, which increases the likelihood users will see irrelevant ads. So
far, despite the annoyance, Facebook mobile users continue to sign up and view the
ads, and Facebook mobile ad revenue is growing an estimated 40% annually in 2013.