Last week DIGIDAY’s Mike Shields wrote about how Facebook, with one of the most popular apps and mobile sites, doesn’t run mobile ads.
Ben Kunz, director of strategic planning at Mediassociates, thinks the reason has little to do with advertising. In his view, Kunz is after a far larger market than just the mobile ad business. It wants nothing less than to compete with Apple, Google, American Express and other giants to become the mobile wallet.
Facebook has a choice: It could clutter up its tiny mobile interface with ads, potentially turning off mobile users, or it could include a new beneficial service that helps users make payments with cell phones, while charging an invisible, small slice to merchants. Hmm. Which would you Like?
There’s no doubt Facebook faces many directions it can go with its massive and engaged user base. With its fledgling virtual currency, it might just be after a much larger prize than cracking the code on mobile ads.
Trending in
Most Read
More in Media
Retailers are rushing to build AI apps. It’s unclear if shoppers will use them
May 5, 2026
There are almost 900 apps on ChatGPT and 353 Claude connectors, according to AppDiscoverability.com, which tracks AI app data.
Why news publishers are getting into the sports business coverage
May 5, 2026
Yahoo and Dow Jones are betting on the booming sports business beat, launching new verticals to capture high-value audiences and advertisers.
From ad tech tax to AI data brokers: the new middlemen keep 100%, publishers say
May 4, 2026
For some publishers, third-party content scraping lands as an even bigger affront than the ad tech tax they’ve spent years navigating – not a share of the pie, but the pie itself.