In light of their falling share
prices, Facebook has turned to their mobile market in another attempt to boost
advertising revenue.
The social networking site has
rewritten its iOS app, converting it from HTML5 to the native Apple Objective-C
code. The refined app will address the issues of the previous HTML5 version
making it much ‘faster, more reliable, and easier to use’, according to
Facebook’s
Jonathan
Dann. It is hoped this will lead iPhone and iPad users into staying on the
site longer and thus, ‘
increasing their exposure
to adverts’.
The move has so far been hailed by
users of the app who have long been calling for an improved version. The key
seems to be in the speed of the update. It has been explained that the HTML5
version‘had to download the user's entire timeline every time they called it, and had
to use slow implementations of Javascript’. The new,
more
responsive app solves these problems and should enable users to spend longer
on the site, instead of becoming frustrated with the service.
The news follows a string of attempts
by Facebook to increase their advertising revenue. Already, the site has begun
to trial ‘
sponsored
stories’, a move which sees adverts connected to the users, and their
friends’ ‘likes’, crop up on their news feed. In this case, businesses can
increase the likelihood that their advert will be seen by paying a fee to the
site. Earlier this month, Facebook also
announced that
‘third-party app developers could start placing ads in users' mobile-device news
feeds’. By clicking on one of these adverts, the user will be redirected to the
particular app store to potentially purchase the app. Facebook gains revenue
through this by charging a fee for each click.
Addressing their mobile audience is a
smart move from Facebook as users increasingly turn to this platform. As well as
the iOS rewrite, it is also hinted that ‘other mobile platforms are on the way’.
This is both through the blog post and from reports that Facebook are aiming to
recruit around 200 engineers to write for mobile by the end of the year. At
present, the site is even running
training
sessions on writing code for iOS and Android.
The move has sparked the native-app
debate and whether Facebook’s creation will see an increase in the number of
these. Initially, Facebook bucked the current trend, creating an Objective-C
code app, but this was later replaced by the HTML5 version. The reasons behind
this were, in part, because of Apple’s software review system and because the
HTML5 version ‘made it easier to make changes to the multiple platforms
simultaneously’. This reasoning has been mirrored by numerous apps but recently,
moves towards native apps have increase due to the advantages they afford. With
Facebook actively stepping up their mobile app services, this is likely to see
rivals and other app makers make similar changes. The US music service Pandora
has reflected Facebook’s pioneering move, creating their own native Android app
to add to their current HTML5 and iOS services.
Overall, the rewritten app from
Facebook should be beneficial all round. Not only will the move potentially
fulfil Facebook’s aim to increase their advertising revenue, but it may also see
the further creation of native apps from other developers. Instead of merely
opting for ease, these developers may now realise the real benefits from native
apps and how they are appreciated by users.
