Back in December 2012, in an
interview with EyeforTravel, Facebook said they had not missed the mobile
boat – they were building it.
Their purchase of the mobile messaging platform WhatsApp for
an astounding $19billion this week is testament to this (albeit building
through acquisition). With a mobile user
base of 450 million, WhatsApp is popular among the young as well as in key emerging
markets, giving Facebook an injection of new mobile users.
Nineteen billion messages and 600 million photos are sent
daily via WhatsApp. Facebook’s mobile
stats were already pretty impressive with 751 million
mobile users accessing Facebook every month.
“We see mobile as a very important channel and
one that will be even more important for the travel vertical,” says Lee McCabe,
Head of Travel Industry, Facebook.
Mobile now generates 30% of its ad revenue up from 23% at the end of 2012. It can certainly be said that Mobile
is a game changer for Facebook and a boat worth building.
Lisa Friedrich, Travel Industry, Facebook will be speaking
about how travel brands can leverage the power of influence and the change in
your travel consumer’s behavior due to mobile, at EyeforTravel’s Social Media
& Mobile in Travel conference in San Francisco next month.
““Mobile is having a profound impact on travel consumer behavior
- as is accessibility to social data. Together they offer real consumer engagement
and revenue driving opportunities to travel brands.”
“By bringing together some of the best minds in social media
and mobile, the 2 day conference continues to shape innovation and be at the
cutting edge of social media and mobile in travel” says Tim Gunstone, MD,
EyeforTravel.
Back in 2008 when the conference was first launched, Facebook
and MySpace ruled the roost. Twitter had
barely surfaced. Facebook had 100
million users versus the 1.19 billion
it has today.
7 years on, in 2014, Facebook still rules the roost (in terms of user numbers) but
interestingly Google+ has moved to the 2nd position. With
speakers from Google+, Facebook, Twitter as well as the Co-Founder of Flickr, the
conference will be exploring what these key changes mean to your brand and importantly
where you should be investing your valuable time and resources.
For further information - http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media/
