Facebook shares down 31 percent since IPO 1 year ago – Facebook shares closed today at $26.25, up $0.12 from yesterday but down 31 percent since the company’s initial public offering on May 18, 2012. Despite a new focus on monetization, particularly on mobile, Facebook hasn’t instilled confidence in investors in its first year as a public company. Many of its recent products, such as Gifts, Graph Search and Home, have launched to mixed reviews. And with all still in limited release, none has emerged as a clear source of future revenue. Still, Facebook has gone from having no ads on mobile to having mobile account for about 30 percent of all advertising revenue in the first quarter of this year.

Facebook’s company and CEO rating up since IPO – Facebook has earned a 4.7 out of 5 rating on Glassdoor, a social jobs and careers community where employees can anonymously share information and reviews about their companies. That average is a slight increase from its 4.6 rating during the 12 months prior to its IPO. Approval of CEO Mark Zuckerberg is also up. He received a 99 percent approval rating among employees, a four percentage point increase from his 95 percent approval rating during the 12 months before the IPO. Facebook saw a small decline in its senior management rating, but still holds a 4.0 (very satisfied) rating over the past 12 months, compared to the 4.3 rating it held pre-IPO. In the last year, the average base salary for Facebook software engineers increased to $119,262, up from $112,193 the previous 12-month period.

HTC slashes ‘Facebook phone’ price to $0.99, may discontinue product – HTC has cut the price of the First — the phone it launched with Facebook Home preloaded — from $99 to $0.99. According to BGR sources, HTC will actually be discontinuing the line soon, likely after in-store display contracts expire. The price cut is meant to move as much inventory as possible before being returned to HTC. The Facebook Home software, however, will still be available for select Android devices through Google Play.

Facebook launches site for academic publications – Facebook this week launched “Research Publications at Facebook,” a site for research papers published by the social network’s employees. The site is open to the public and includes a number of papers on engineering and sociology topics, such as “Self-censorship on Facebook” and “Storage and Performance Optimization of Long Tail Key Access in a Social Network“

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook has started to roll out support for emoji in all posts and comments on desktop and mobile, a company spokesperson tells us.

Previously, emoji — a standardized set of emoticons and picture characters – were available for Facebook Messenger, but not within status updates, comments or other posts. Facebook started offering some chat emoticons in comments on desktop last year, but this wasn’t the full emoji set. Now, users have more flexibility in sharing smileys and other icons across Facebook, whether it’s a check-in, photo caption, group post or some other message or comment.

The social network has made a number of moves recently to bring more ways for users to express themselves through small pictures. There are the new structured status updates where users can share what they’re feeling, eating, drinking, watching, reading or listening to. And the new stickers for mobile messages.

These features, along with emoji, help users communicate in new ways or say things that might be difficult otherwise. They can also add a bit more fun into the service, which at points has been seen as a cold or sterile platform compared to the flash and flexibility of other social networks. When Facebook released the Poke app, which was sillier than its typically utilitarian features, we wondered if it was a sign of more to come. So far this year it seems that Facebook is lightening up and giving users new options that are popular in other apps.

The latest emoji support for posts and comments was built a Facebook hackathon last week and began rolling out to users on Tuesday. To create emoji characters, a user must enable the emoji keyboard on their phone and in their web browser. For example, ShowMeEmoji is a useful extension for Chrome users.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Apple has recently taken action against apps that violate clause 2.25 of its App Review Guidelines according to PocketGamer, a rule that says no app should replicate functionality of the App Store in order to promote or offer for purchase apps other than your own.

The rules recently saw two high-profile app removals, including AppGratis and AppShopper (which subsequently returned after changes were made) but more could follow as Apple is not also reportedly rejecting apps that replication App Store search features, as well as social network sharing of app recommendations.

A rejection supplied to PocketGamer by a developer shows Apple citing apps that “include filtering, bookmarking, searching or sharing recommendations” as not being distinct enough from the App Store itself to pass muster with Apple. Apple doesn’t include provisions around filtering, bookmarking, searching or sharing in the actual wording of clause 2.25 itself, but it was apparently spelled out pretty clearly in the email.

The app developer which spoke to PocketGamer wished to remain anonymous, which is probably because it hopes to work to get its app back in the store. AppShopper managed to secure a return after repurposing its app as more of a social network around mobile software than a pure app recommendation and discovery tool.

The extension of the guidelines to include a much more broad category of apps, including ones that do little but let users share recommendations with friends might seem a little unusual coming from Apple, since these fuel its own app economy. But there are multiple problems with giving developers free rein to build their own App Store clones and complimentary tools: Apple potentially loses control of the shopping experience and confuses customers; charts and ranking systems become subject to outside forces with different motivations other than surfacing the best content; social recommendations run the risk of looking like spam to users instead of something worthwhile.

Running a store of any kind well depends upon customers trusting you, and feeling that you won’t abuse that trust. It’s true that maintaining an affiliate network helps Apple drive app sales, but it has to be very careful that that network stays fair of consumer expectations, and guideline 2.25 is a way to help Apple keep companies toeing that line.

In other words, it’s a finesse tool, not a bludgeoning instrument, and while we’ll probably see more apps fall, this is probably about getting developers to focus where Apple needs them to be rather than about implementing a blanket ban.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook has shared user growth statistics for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year during the company’s earnings call today. The social network reported continuing growth, reaching 1.11 billion monthly active users for the quarter. It also reported 751 million mobile monthly active users, a continued increase from 680 million last quarter and 604 million the quarter before.

The graph below shows Facebook’s global growth for the last nine quarters. Though growth has slowed in countries such as the US and Canada as well as Europe, the company has grown by 54 million monthly active users, a 23.2 percent increase from Q1 2012.

For daily active users, Facebook has grown to 665 million, a 47 million user increase. Last quarter was the first time Mobile DAUs surpassed web DAUs and this continued into this quarter as well. With the introduction of Facebook Home and updated applications, much of the 665 million daily active users are connecting with the social network through mobile devices.

Facebook also reported 751 million mobile active users, an increase of 71 million. It also reported that 189 million are mobile only active users, a 42 million increase quarter-to-quarter. More users than ever are only using their mobile devices to connect to the social network as apparent by the 124 percent increase from Q1 2012.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Spaceport.io has just announced that part of its team, but not its technology, is moving to Facebook, and the social network has confirmed the talent deal to me. But instead of shutting down, Spaceport.io will continue to operate its Adobe Air alternative under the direction of co-founder Peter Relan and the team from his incubator YouWeb that backed Spaceport.

The Spaceport team including Ben Savage (not the actor from Boy Meets World) could help Facebook build better cross-platform mobile experience for itself and its third-party developers. Facebook tells me “Ben Savage and the Spaceport team are talented group of mobile engineers. We look forward to building products that people love together.” Spaceport was originally founded as Sibblingz Inc by Savage and Relan within the YouWeb incubator. It raised $3 million in April 2012 from BBC Worldwide and YouWeb.

For a remarkably clear, no bull , one-minute description of what Spaceport does, check out this video. But as our writer Leena Rao put it in 2011, “Spaceport allows game developers to build a game once, using Javascript, and have it play across all smartphone operating systems, with a native app-like experience and fast performance. The games run as a hybrid HTML5 – native app, and the code for the game is written once, in a simple scripting language, so that they can then run on any device. With Spaceport, developers just need to revise the JavaScript code for their game in the HTML page once. After doing so, they will see immediate updates take place in their game across every device.”

Developers will still be able to build on the YouWeb-supported Spaceport platform. Some early users of the platform include Nickelodeon, and social game heavyweight Crowdstar, who used Spaceport to build its hit game It Girl.

So how does the Spaceport team help Facebook? The social network launched an HTML5 game platform in late 2011 but it’s gotten very little traction. Developers seem to prefer building native apps that have more access to a mobile device’s hardware and that can handle better graphics. The Spaceport team could help Facebook build out that platform so it’s suitable for serious apps.

Alternatively, the Spaceport team might aid Facebook with porting its own rich native apps to the mobile web via HTML5. Facebook famously backtracked on the mobile web standard after spending years building its iOS and Android apps on the architecture. It eventually realized HTML5 made the apps run too slowly, so it rebuilt them 100% native. Spaceport could allow the Facebook mobile team port its native apps to HTML5 so all the code doesn’t have to be rewritten. That could let Facebook continue shipping mobile products quickly so it doesn’t get picked apart by more nimble, mobile-first startups.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

New research released by the U.K.’s telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has flagged up significant growth in social networking among older Internet users — which is helping to offset lower rates of growth across younger age groups.  Ofcom’s latest Adult media uses and attitudes report, which examines 2012 U.K. data, indicates that more than a third (35%) of 55 to 64 year-old Internet users created a social networking profile last year — up by half in just one year (24% in 2011).

Ofcom notes that it’s the only age-group with a “significant increase” in social networking growth but the research also found that a quarter (25%) of Internet users aged 65+ also set up a social network profile last year.

As you might expect, younger  age-groups saw much more marginal growth (see chart below) — doubtless because the majority of those users would be likely to have a social networking profile already. There have also been some suggestions that younger age groups may be becoming less interested in social networking, also fuelled by the rise in usage of alternative messaging and communications apps, such as Snapchat. Lots more older users flocking to mainstream social network sites could further encourage younger users to take more of their chatter elsewhere.

Overall Ofcom said that about two-thirds (64%) of all the U.K.’s adult Internet users had a social networking presence in 2012, up from 59% in 2011.

According to Ofcom’s findings, older social networkers are following in the footsteps of their younger counterparts, with much the same types of usage — predominantly using social networking as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family, with six in 10 (64%) of those aged over 55 who have a social network profile using it to contact friends and family they rarely see.

The research also found that younger social networkers are generally likely to have more friends on their main social network profile than older users. Ofcom found the average U.K. adult with a social networking account has 237 friends on their main profile, such as Facebook, but younger adults have more online connections — with the average 16-24 year-old social networker claiming 352 friends, which it said was almost three times as many as those aged over 45 (126 friends).

Far from Brits getting tired of social networking, Ofcom found that half of U.K. adults with a social network profile visit it more than once a day, up from a third (35%) who said they did so in 2011. Almost one in ten (9%) is an especially avid user, checking their profile more than ten times a day. Those aged 16-24 are the most likely to fall into the ‘avid’ category — suggesting those younger users who still think Facebook is cool remain heavily engaged with it —  while almost a fifth (17%) said they check for updates more than ten times daily.

It seems likely, though is not specifically noted by Ofcom, that the rise in smartphone usage and mobile social networking is likely to be helping to power frequent daily visits to social networking sites such as Facebook. Research by Flurry earlier this month showed Facebook in particular taking up a big chunk of mobile users’ day. Ofcom’s data found that 16-24s remain the most likely to use a smartphone (86%).

Looking at specific social networking site users, Ofcom’s data shows a clear skew towards messaging & communication — which underlines why Facebook is increasing its focus on messaging, adding new comms features to its Messenger app and launching Facebook Home: a smartphone skin which includes a dedicated messaging layer called Chat Heads:

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Tencent’s social blogging site, Qzone, has Asia’s largest active social network user base, with 600 million (and counting) users who log in more than twice a month.

Besides Qzone, the Chinese Internet giant is perhaps better known for its flagship QQ instant messenger and the exploding WeChat smartphone messaging app.

I spoke to Peter Zheng, vice president of Tencent’s social network group. He’s been overseeing Qzone’s evolution for the past eight years. He told me that when Qzone was launched in 2005, it was initially planned as a Geocities-style blog community, before the company decided to add social aspects by linking blogs to users’ QQ accounts. “Luckily, when we started, Facebook wasn’t common in China. There were some challenges from other platforms like microblogs such as Weibo, but these [Twitter-like channels] are quite public, and people saw QZone as a more private space,” he said.

It wasn’t always supposed to be walled, but QZone inherited the company’s older QQ contact list that added people based on user IDs, not more universal identifiers like email addresses or phone numbers. And unlike what we’re used to on Facebook or LinkedIn for example, you can’t see who your friends’ friends are because of the way those lists were architected, said Zheng.

“For a while, we were concerned that that made it hard for people to expand their friends lists. Our legacy was closed, and we thought it hindered the expansion of the network,” he said. But it seemed to work out. “Over time, our users told us that they didn’t want to add contacts the way you do on Facebook. When everyone is added deliberately because you sought them out, you’re just adding buddies you want to share your updates with. Turns out that was a way to keep your friend circles tight, and our users are keener to share on Qzone because of that,” he said.

This is the mantra of some of the “private” sharing platforms like Path—some with more success than others—but Tencent seems to have stumbled upon the working formula and had its popularity multiplied by the sheer volume of users coming onboard in its home country.

^{Over 100 million users concurrently on Qzone, with most of them concentrated in China}

Another way it has fueled its user growth is an early emphasis on the mobile phone. The Qzone app was released in early 2010, and included features like photo filters and the option to record voice memos. While a typical Twitter or Tumblr user would take a photo, open it in a separate app to dress it up, then open the blogging app to post it, all of this can be done within Qzone’s app, reducing the friction to post. (Instagram was launched towards Fall 2010.)

The Qzone app has also added features that caught on with Asian users earlier than they did in the West, such as decorative water marks. “Asian users like to decorate their photos, not just filter them,” he said. Qzone’s app also allows users to add a voice clip as a status update, or tag it to a photo. “That makes it feel more personal. You can send a gift and attach a voice clip from the phone too,” Zheng said.

When he showed me a typical Qzone page, I was boggled by how busy the page was, with animations and audio. “It’s almost like MySpace,” I say.

“Sort of,” he agreed. “But it isn’t really the form factor that matters the most. Maintaining the relationship with your existing user base and keeping them happy goes a long way. You want to be on the social network that your friends are on, and always keeping it fresh means users stay happy.”

Tapping the ideas of 22,000

It is here in Shenzhen’s hi-tech district that Zheng’s 2,000 or so engineers work on Qzone. The Tencent headquarters is a sprawling skyscraper, dwarfing its myriad grey-washed neighbors. While I had problems getting my cab driver to register exactly where I wanted to be in the already famous Hua Qiang Bei cluster, simply saying “Tencent” in English got him to immediately acknowledge, exclaiming “Teng Xun Da Sha”, which translates to Tencent Plaza in Mandarin.

Started in 1998, Tencent is China’s largest Internet company by revenue, and was the first Internet company in the country to break through the $1 billion revenue mark in 2009.

My arrival at the headquarters was kicked off with a tour of the impressive lobby showcase area. A big, gleaming board reflected how many users were concurrently on QQ—156 million that Wednesday afternoon, with a peak of 172 million. The company counts an active user as someone who logs in more than twice a month, and by that measure, has an impressively high retention rate of 700 million out of its 1 billion total users worldwide.

^{156 million users chatting on QQ instant messenger at the same time}

“This is the same tour that our CEO, Pony Ma, gave to (Chinese Communist Party general secretary) Xi Jinping when he visited,” informed my guide in impeccable English. I asked her how long she’s been working for Tencent, and she said she’s been with the company for the past two years since she graduated. “I do not consider myself young here,” she said, shaking her head.

And perhaps she can’t. The average age of Tencent’s 22,000 employees is merely 26—a feat made possible by an aggressive, ongoing hiring campaign that takes Tencent to tertiary institutions in the country in order to sniff out their finest.

The constant influx of fresh blood could be one of the reasons why Tencent has kept up with China’s relatively young Internet population. China’s average age across its user base is just 25, while in the US, that number is much higher at 42.

How do you juggle ideas coming in from thousands of young, enthusiastic minds? “Unfortunately, you have to cancel projects if they don’t work after a certain time, usually several weeks or months,” said Zheng.

“There are no bad ideas, only bad execution. So we give all ideas a fair chance, but we look for teams with bad execution and we do kill their projects,” he said.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook has established new restrictions for how many event invites a user can send at one time and how many pending invites an event can have, according to users who are seeing a notification preventing them from inviting more friends.

The Facebook Help Center confirms that users cannot send more than 100 event invites at a time and an event can only have 300 pending invites at once. This could hinder the efforts of some event planners or promoters, but also help users avoid getting too many invitations they aren’t relevant to them. As a result, event organizers might experiment with Facebook’s paid options for promoting events to users who are most likely to be interested in them.

The social network has long had different mechanisms in place to limit spam and unwanted invitations, but this latest cap seems to be a development from some time in March or before. Social media author Mari Smith pointed out these rules last week, and user Cory Wijnhamer provided a screenshot of the notification he saw to AllFacebook:

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Aspects of Facebook’s new product for Android appear to be leaking ahead of the company’s scheduled announcement this Thursday. The consensus from multiple reports is that the social network will release a modified version of Android, a phone by HTC and “Facebook Home,” software that any Android device can run to give users a more socially integrated homescreen experience.

Facebook hasn’t offered any information about these possible products except a press invitation that included the phrase, “Come see our new home on Android.” TechCrunch reports that Facebook has altered the Android operating system to build in more social functionality, including features from News Feed and Messenger. The New York Times also has sources corroborating this. The OS might not be a full Android fork, such as what Amazon has done for its Kindle Fire, as TechCrunch says Facebook scaled back its ambitions when some key team members left the company.

This modified version of Android is likely to be running on a new device by Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC, which has worked with Facebook in the past to integrate the social network into its devices. 9to5Google’s sources, who are involved with a marketing campaign for the new phone, say it includes a 4.3-inch display and an iPhone-like “home button” at the bottom center of the device, with horizontal function keys to the left and right.

AndroidPolice got access to a “system dump” for the upcoming release, which includes code and files that hint at what will be announced. The HTC phone, code-named Myst, has a special Facebook app that includes all the necessary permissions to operate as a homescreen app, also known as a “launcher.” According to the files, Facebook’s will be called “Facebook Home” and will include shortcuts to create posts and a chat feature called “Chat Heads” which will run continuously in the background.

There are pieces of code that suggest Facebook Home will be available for download on other Android devices besides the HTC “Myst.” Unlike Apple’s iOS, Android allows users to run third-party launchers. This matches TechCrunch’s suggestion that Facebook would not limit its homescreen experience to a single device and manufacturer.

InsideFacebook will be covering the social network’s launch event live from Facebook HQ on Thursday.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Although Facebook publicly announced a new Timeline layout last week with posts in a single column on the right and customizable modules to the left, some users are seeing another design, which is more of a hybrid of the new and old Timeline.

Blink VP Planning and Media Eti Suruzon says her profile was updated Wednesday, but it doesn’t look like the version Facebook has launched to others. The cover photo design and navigation bar beneath it are the same as what the social network debuted last week, but the posts continue to appear in a two-column layout as they were previously.

Facebook confirms that this is an intentional test. Some users disliked the two-column design that required them to look back and forth to see their posts, however the layout is more like a timeline, which was Facebook’s intent with the profile when it relaunched in 2011. In October 2012, Facebook began testing versions that kept posts in a single column and put all other modules to the other side. It seems the company has still not decided which UI is better in terms of user engagement and sentiment.

For reference, this is what Suruzon’s profile looks like to another user who has access to the version of Timeline that Facebook announced last week:

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook