Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Takeaways from Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference


Mark Zuckerberg presented at Facebook’s third f8 Developers Conference in San Franciso last week. It was one of the major conferences of this year which may act as a stepping stone for the evolution of Facebook. Some of the key highlights of the event were focus on mobile user experience and enhancing user privacy.
My Top 5 key takeaways from Digital Marketing perspective would be

1. Bridge between Mobile Operating Systems
 
At F8, Zuckerberg seemed to address to the marketers how Facebook would be helping to reduce siloes in the marketing channels by augmenting its suite of developer tools. Facebook aims to do this by helping mobile apps run cross-platform operating systems (e.g. Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Microsoft's Windows etc.).

Currently, it is tough to imagine the Mobile operating systems working nicely with each other. Thus, Facebook wants to be the glue that would help stick them together. I think this would be a smart move by Facebook as brand marketers will need to rely on Facebook even more, especially for understanding customer experience and gaining that elusive personalized view of a customer.
2. Focus on Mobile and Mobile Apps"Like" Button

Facebook announced that it would release new mobile "Like" button where users could Like and share directly from a company's mobile app. This would also include a "send to mobile" feature to drive app downloads from Facebook and the mobile web as well as a new message dialogue for developers. Additionally, considering that 86% of time spent on internet is on Mobile devices and not on browsers (as per the chart below), Zuckerberg envisions Facebook on virtually every mobile app by indicating successful apps are bound to have a social media community.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3. Facebook Messenger opened to Third Party Apps
This is a major announcement from Facebook where it would revamp (find different word) its Messenger service, allowing users send content like GIFs, photos, videos,and more from third-party apps within the Facebook Messenger app.
The move would mean that app developers could now build Facebook Messenger support into their apps, making them directly accessible within the Facebook Messenger app.  The objective of allowing other social networks and services to directly post to it is supposed to make conversations even better and more seamless.
This is the major next step after allowing US-based users to send money to and from each other via Messenger. Zuckerberg also revealed plans to launch an associated service called Businesses on Messenger but the corresponding details are yet to be revealed.
Using the mobile app, people would be able to hold conversations with companies they interact with including the ones they buy goods from providing a seamless conversation through app instead of email.

4. User Privacy
One of the biggest announcements at the conference was the introduction of anonymous login. As privacy concerns continue to grow among consumers, Facebook is pushing to instill further trust with its users and give consumers more control. The anonymous login will allow users to log in anonymously to third-party apps so that they can try out an app before providing their personal data. This would help a person to test out an app or service that requires a Facebook login without the fear of the rogue Facebook posts. Facebook also announced advanced permissions and the ability for users to be more selective with the information that is shared with apps through a Facebook login.

5. Integrated Ads
Today mobile comprises for over 60% of Facebook's revenue. Around 90% of this is from advertising, but Facebook wants ads with good creative content that are targeted so well, that they do not upset users. Zuckerberg used F8 as a platform to help marketers and the developer communities understand that they would make more money only if they are respectful and value the users. At the moment, Facebook's average revenue per user is $2.44 in Europe. Interestingly it's $5.85 in the US but only $0.70 in the rest of the world.
There is a huge opportunity for Facebook to make considerably more money than they already do but according to me, the takeaway from F8 is to build a strong community first and subsequently plan how to monetize it properly later.


References:
http://www.netimperative.com/2015/03/facebook-opens-messenger-to-third-party-apps/

http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/facebooks-f8-conference-announcements-focus-on-privacy-and-mobile/

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