Facebook’s IPO was beset with doubts about whether it could turn its massive cellphone presence into revenue and profit. Attempting to address this, the social networking firm is to open its first engineering office outside the US, specifically to focus on mobile products, services and ideas. It will recruit about 25 developers to be based in London and led by Philip Su, an engineer who joined from Microsoft in 2010. His remit will be to accelerate and expand the work Facebook has been doing over the past two years to turn itself from an application into a fully-fledged platform, with a developer network spanning many device types and relying heavily on HTML5.
Su said the office would “grow over time and eventually focus on building products in key areas like mobile and platform.” It will also have responsibility for attracting third party developers, to try to rival the networks of Google and Apple.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in May that improving mobile applications was his “first priority” for 2012, with an emphasis on improved quality as well as quantity ‘ Facebook mobile apps have often come under fire for being slow or buggy. The company recently launched its App Center ‘ a recommendation hub and streamlined discovery tool rather than a full app store ‘ in the US and UK.
The social firm will base its new center in London’s emerging Tech City, where Amazon also announced a media development unit this week. Facebook will merge the development teams of two UK companies it has acquired, and is looking to hire a manager for software engineering, an Android developer, a platform developer, a mobile developer and a tools engineer, according to its jobs page. The firm’s existing engineering teams are in New York, Seattle, and Menlo Park, California.
Meanwhile, rumors resurfaced that Facebook is developing its own-branded smartphone, following in Google’s footsteps. It is working with HTC and will release the handset in mid-2013, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg.
HTC has already made phones with a user experience heavily centered on Facebook, notably the Salsa and Cha-Cha, as has INQ Mobile. But so far the social networking firm has not offered a device under its own brand. The reports indicate that it had intended to release its HTC-made product this year but had to push back the date as the Taiwanese vendor had other projects.
Facebook is expected to develop its own operating system for its device. This could be a modified version of Android, as Amazon has done, or one of the new breed of browser-based OS, such as Mozilla Firefox Mobile, which would fit in with its heavy focus on HTML5 apps. Facebook was also once linked with webOS, now in open source, or could even license RIM’s BlackBerry 10, though this seems a long shot.
The company has hired several former Apple employees to help create its applications and OS base. These include Greg Novick, who helped create the iPhone touchscreen user interface, and two other iOS team members, Tim Omernick and Chris Tremblay. Facebook also recruited several former senior personnel from Palm’s webOS group.
‘Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social,’ said a Facebook statement. ‘We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.’
Facebook started offering mobile ads in March but has not yet reported on their progress. It believes it will generate more advertising revenue if its features are embedded deeply into handsets rather than running purely as iOS or Android apps.