Facebook, owner of the world's largest social network, says it's working on a location-based mobile-advertising product that will allow companies to target users with real-time data showing their whereabouts.
"Phones can be location-specific so you can imagine what the product evolution might look like over time, particularly for retailers," said Carolyn Everson, Facebook's vice-president of global marketing solutions.
Facebook, whose shares fell 17 per cent from its initial public offering last month, is increasing mobile-ad efforts amid concern advertising revenue isn't keeping pace with users' migration to smartphones.
Mobile-ad spending in the United States is expected to grow 80 per cent to US$2.61 billion ($3.28 billion) this year from 2011, when Google received half of mobile-ad dollars, according to EMarketer. Only 1 per cent of all ad spending was on mobile ads last year.
"The holy grail of advertising is finding people when they are at their closest point to making a purchase," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird in San Francisco.
