Derek Thompson illustrates how much the site depends on mobile:
John Cassidy unpacks Zuckerberg’s business strategy:
[F]or all its youth and technological sheen, Facebook is, at heart, a very simple and recognizable business. More than eighty per cent of its revenues come from advertising, which has grown enormously since it started featuring ads in its news stream rather than just in banners. Where Facebook outdoes other big media companies is in its ability to target ads based upon its users’ activities on the site. In many ways, in fact, Facebook is the world’s first global direct-marketing company.
Through its automated advertising platform, advertisers, large and small, can create ads that slip into the news stream of select Facebook users, based upon their age, location, and interests, as reflected in their activities on the site. Every time you click the “like” button, Facebook records it. If you say you like a certain yoga video, chances are you will see ads from local studios cropping up in your news stream. Since the ads are targeted at users’ interests, they can be pretty effective; Facebook provides tools for advertisers to measure just how effective.
The Dish 