With the impending Facebook IPO that could value the company at an unprecedented $100 billion dollars, Facebook have now started the transition from a social enterprise to a money making machine for its future shareholders.
According to law, the company will be first liable to its shareholders in terms of delivering shareholder value and distant second to its customers or users. In a move that will probably see many more similar ones, Facebook has quietly started testing mobile ads that will be served to its users accessing the social platform from mobile devices.
To achieve this, Facebook has been negotiating behind closed doors with mobile ad network companies in what is seen as the first steps towards monetizing its mobile users. Companies are usually notorious for ditching their core values post-IPO and this has many voicing their concerns about what Facebook will end up becoming after the IPO. One notable issue raised and that has been a thorn in Facebook’s side has to be privacy issues.
Facebook is one of those rare companies that benefits fully from user generated content. In other words, Facebook makes money from collecting users’ personal data and hawking that to advertisers. What’s worse is that Facebook are still notoriously refusing to permanently delete user data even when a user erases the same.
This has European activists up in arms as they argue everyone should have a “right to be forgotten” meaning all personal data must be erased permanently when a user deletes their personal information.
Nevertheless, these issues only seem as pebbles in the path of the social media juggernaut and Facebook ads on mobile will probably come with greater earning potential and see those lucky few who will buy into the IPO smiling upon their investment.
