Facebook is planning to slow its advertising revenue growth between businesses and Facebook users within the next several months. FB is afraid users are at risk of being alienated after Facebook had a 166% growth in profits from July-September 2016 compared to that same period last year.
Most of Facebook’s growth has been from adverts. Seeing how most users are on mobile now, mobile advertising makes up 84% of those profits. Facebook’s mobile users went up to 1.1 Billion, yes billion, compared to last years 894 Million Mobile users.
Facebook is going through a few rough patches. The social media brand is working with their analytics because they overestimated how much video people are watching by upwards of 80%. Plus, FB-owned Whatsapp is now working with European Watchdogs after recent privacy changes to share data with their parent company.
The Book isn’t going away. They have survived many issues, and will likely come through this just fine. But what does this mean for businesses and private users like you and me? Well, with change comes opportunity. FB might be cutting back on its advertisements, but it is also working on some new features.
One such change: introducing a marketplace for consumers and businesses to sell to one another. Creating ad Amazon-like atmosphere within the social platform allows people to transact without ever leaving the comfort of Facebook. and having users never leave the site. (Business Tip: Jump on board now while the marketplace is still in its early stages, before it becomes overcrowded with merchants.)
Whatsapp is working on a way to bring brands and consumers closer together. A new feature will help users find a product or connect directly to customer service, offering businesses another convenient dimension of connectivity to their consumers.
Though these are not direct forms of advertising, if done correctly they can generate more than talk: they can deepen the brand-consumer relationship, increasing loyalty and business. Yes, FB is once again keeping us on our toes. Stay updated my friends!
