Facebook Phone in the Works?

Facebook has recently held its much-awaited initial public offering, leading to a hundred billion dollar valuation. But while its post-IPO performance has left much to be desired, Facebook is still soldiering on with its long-term plans for social media dominance. Next up, according to analysts and observers, is possibly a Facebook phone.

Facebook dominates social media, with about 800 million users worldwide. But even so, there is concern that mobile and smartphone users are not accessing Facebook enough from their devices. And with the trend in Internet use moving toward mobile devices, Facebook needs to address this concern. As such, Facebook wants to move beyond just being an application that runs on smartphones, tablets and computers, it probably wants to run its own mobile platform, too.

Recent rumored acquisitions point to this. Sources say Facebook is in talks to buy Face.com to the tune of US$ 100 million. Opera is also among the rumored companies to be acquired by Facebook post IPO.

Face.com runs technology that identifies faces from photos. The Israeli company already has an app running on Facebook that lets users automatically tag their friends on photo albums. Facebook will greatly benefit from Face.com’s mobile application, which will greatly help improve Facebook’s advertising platform through enhanced analysis of social connections.

Meanwhile, Opera browser boasts of about 200 million users, and is a popular alternative to default mobile browsers on various platforms. Facebook will need a browser if it were to launch its own mobile platform.

These are speculations, of course, although TechCrunch cites sources close to both Face.com and Opera. Neither Facebook or the target acquisitions have an official stance on the matter. At this point, it’s still a wait and see situation for Facebook fans, investors and the media alike.

---

---

---