Facebook’s First Year Post-IPO: the Most Important Thing It Did

One year later, Facebook has figured out mobile, experts say. The social networking giant may have had a rough patch after its IPO, but Facebook has quickly turned things around by cashing in on its users’ obsession with mobile.

“One of the big complaints at the company’s IPO was that it doesn’t make any money on mobile, and that was true and fair at the time,” said Jason Stein, founder and president of the social media agency Laundry Service.

Facebook had zero revenue on its mobile-ad platform when it went public but posted $375 million on mobile in the first quarter, Stein said.

“It’s amazing that a company was

criticized for lacking any mobile presence was able to completely build a new app and monetize it as quickly as it was able to build it,” Stein said.

Almost 70 percent of Facebook users are on the network’s mobile platform, and about 30 percent of all ad revenue is generated via mobile—advertisers like that because they see huge growth opportunity, Stein said.

Eden Zoller, principal consumer analyst at Ovum, said its crucial that Facebook continue to expand into emerging markets.

“I think [ad revenue] will increase, and there’s a real imperative for Facebook to continue that momentum,” Zoller said. “More people are interacting with people on mobile phones, some of them on an exclusive basis. … Facebook needs to ensure that the advertising dollars go with that migration.”