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 In recent years, Facebook Inc has successfully encouraged a growing
number of third-party app makers to allow users to log in with their
Facebook identity rather than, say, by entering an email address or
creating a dedicated account.
The result has been an influx of valuable data for the world's No. 1
social network, but concerns have also mounted about third-party
developers gaining access to private information.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said at Facebook's developer
conference in San Francisco on Wednesday that a new version of
Facebook's log-in tool, called "log in anonymously," would let users
control what information they allow third-party apps to see. He told
developers the tool would let users feel more comfortable about
logging into apps using Facebook.
"By giving people more power and control, they're going to trust all
the apps that we build more, and over time use them more. And that's
positive for everyone," said Zuckerberg.
The revamped log-in screen will let users select which personal
information stored on the social network, such as an email address,
birthday or items that they have "liked" on Facebook, can be
accessed by any particular app.
The user's names and gender will remain visible to the app.
On Wednesday, the social network also rolled out a new service to
distribute ads across a network of mobile applications, opening the
door to a new source of revenue.
The service, which has been in the works on for some time, allows
mobile-app makers to insert various ads within their software, with
Facebook sharing advertising dollars with the developers.
"This is really the first time that we're going to help you monetize
in a serious way on mobile," Zuckerberg said.
Facebook faces tough competition in the active mobile ad network
market. Google Inc's AdMob service already allows advertisers to
distribute ads to mobile apps, while Twitter Inc said on Tuesday
that its MoPub ad network can reach 1 billion mobile users.
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Twitter's MoPub, which serves as an advertising management tool for
app publishers, will allow mobile apps to feature ads for the
Facebook audience as well as other networks, the two companies said.
Facebook began testing a mobile ad network with a limited number of
advertisers and mobile app publishers in January. It plans to expand
the number of app makers that can use the service, although it did
not provide a time frame for when the system will become broadly
available.
The new mobile ad system, dubbed the Facebook Audience Network, will
leverage Facebook's more than 1 million advertisers and its own
ability to target users based on their traits.
Facebook generates the bulk of its revenue from ads that appear on
its own Web pages and within its own mobile app. By distributing ads
across a constellation of independent mobile apps, Facebook
effectively expands its advertising space, opening the door to more
revenue.
To get access to the extra ad space, ad networks typically share the
revenue with their partners. Facebook will share most of the ad
revenue with apps makers, as is standard in the industry, a source
familiar with the matter told Reuters.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Phil Berlowitz and Andre
Grenon)
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