Facebook has been steadily polishing up its mobile business model, ever since last year’s IPO was so badly hit by doubts about its ability to monetize the explosion of its smartphone traffic. Now it may be enlisting the support of the world’s largest handset maker, Samsung, a move which could boost its advertising sales and also exploit the reported tensions between the Android giant and Google.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met Samsung’s president, Sin Jong Kyun, in Seoul, apparently to discuss a partnership focused on boosting mobile advertising sales. The US firm confirmed the meeting but did not provide details of the topics discussed.
Google has an uneasy relationship with its smartphone OEMs, thanks to its ownership of Motorola Mobility; its attempts to control the Android user experience; and its desire to reduce the brand power of the hardware makers to enhance its own. Facebook could strengthen its own hand against Google by chasing more harmonious relationships with OEMs, and has already engaged in a string of handset deals delivering various levels of ‘Facebook phones’ with integrated social networking capabilities. Its Facebook Home overlay runs on the Samsung Galaxy S4 as well as the HTC One.
Zuckerberg also met with the president of South Korea, Park Geun Hye, to talk about the latter’s ‘Creative Economy’ program to promote new businesses, industries and jobs via technology and culture.