Facebook has just issued some pretty interesting figures relating to its use in the UK. 24 million people in the UK check into Facebook everyday. For many it's the first thing they check when they awake. That’s one third of the total UK population and probably about half if you exclude the very young and very old. 33 million at least once per month. 82% of Facebook use in the UK is via mobiles/tablets. To put that into context, the X-Factor final got 9.5m viewers. Facebook has three times the next most popular social network – Twitter – in the UK. These are powerful messages to advertisers.
Facebook’s Q2 results were extremely good – See my post Facebook – What a surprise. They really demonstrated how they had cracked mobile advertising. The ‘in-stream’ sponsored status updates are far and away better than any other mobile advertising I encounter. They get noticed but don’t seem intrusive…yet. I guess if they become more frequent the backlash will start. All this has done wonders to Facebook’s share price which has risen c50% in recent weeks to exceed its IPO May 12 price of $38 for the first time.
On Monday, it was revealed that CEO Sheryl Sandberg had sold another $91m of Facebook stock. She sold $50m in 2012 but still holds stock worth c$1b. Sandberg was i/c of online sales at Google before she joined Facebook in 2008. Little doubt that Facebook’s performance since – in particular the spectacularly successful move to mobile advertising – is down mainly to Sandberg. In 2011 I had the pleasure of having dinner with Sandberg. As I wrote at the time , I was mega impressed! Some say she’s the most successful/influencial woman in the corporate world today. Others suggest she might move into politics – she certainly has the war chest required!
Whatever, I can but take my hat off to Sandberg and Facebook. They have faced up to the doubters – which included me – with the best of all ripostes. Results.