Facebook launches mobile advertising platform

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new mobile ad network called Audience Network at the social network’s own developer conference, f8. There have been rumors about this ad network before.

The new mobile advertising network will be called Audience Network and will have to compete with Twitter, AdMob and InMobi, among others. Companies can place advertisements on Audience Network via an API. The network allows companies to show targeted ads to users based on information from Facebook without it being in a Facebook app. The social network already has a similar service for websites on desktops.

The plan is the next step to monetize advertising on mobile devices. Previously, the social network made it possible for developers to buy ads that appear in users’ news feeds. And late last year, Facebook started showing ads in video clips on mobile devices. There is also the option to show sponsored reports to friends for a fee.

Facebook already earns more and more from mobile users. Those users, whose numbers continue to rise, accounted for more than half of the social networking site’s income in the past year. That money came from paid referrals to apps in the App Store and Google Play, among other things.