Facebook Continues to Lead in Mobile Advertising and App Businesses

Despite Stormy Decade, Facebook Continues to Lead in Mobile Advertising and App Businesses

Sudipto Ghosh

December 20, 2019

Facebook had a rather tumultuous decade but it can laugh its way into 2020 as the most successful mobile advertising company in the world. In a recently published mobile app data report, four Facebook-owned applications were ranked among the top most-downloaded and used applications between 2011-2019. App tracker and social media analytics company AppAnnie ranked Facebook app, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram as top mobile apps.

Next Step in App Growth – PlayGiga Gaming Acquisition and Portal TV

Interestingly, yesterday CNBC announced acquisition of PlayGiga, a Madrid-based Cloud gaming company that excels in delivering 5G and VR solutions. With this acquisition, the world’s largest social media conglomerate would bring Video, Gaming, Social Media interactions, and News Feed directly to your smartphone and connected devices, including gaming devices.

Recently, Facebook announced updates to Portal TV as well, and we are seeing PlayGiga’s addition as a major push to video gaming and mobile app-based advertising ecosystem. In short, Facebook is deep-diving into Gaming-as-a-Service (GaaS) market, which has sprung billions of dollars in revenue in the last few years or so.

Instagram and WhatsApp started as independent companies before Facebook bought them in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

In recent months, especially after the US Presidential elections in 2016 followed by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has been under immense pressure to tighten its brand safety and data privacy policies. TikTok, Tinder and Netflix are putting additional pressure on how user-generated content is moving toward becoming a fully-monetized asset for leading advertising companies.

Of course, Facebook continues to fight and answer tough questions posed by governments and consumer data privacy regulators from around the globe, yet, it’s UGC does not seem to be dropping anchor anytime soon. Facebook advertising and publishing teams have raised pertinent concerns over brand safety. To which, the largest social media data aggregator replies by launching at least two whitelisting tools, in addition to pressing for new data security and privacy management solutions to deliver a high-quality advertising ecosystem.

Apart from Facebook-owned Apps, Tinder and TikTok Also Rose Rampantly

Mobile gaming apps remain the top-ranked mobile apps and the trend doesn’t seem to change in 2020 either. However, in the PUBG and Call of Duty-dominated ecosystem, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp Messenger, and the Facebook app took sweet spots ahead of the rest. Likable trends such as the rise of TikTok, LIKEE, and Tinder apps should make mobile advertising and publishing teams happy.

*The Most Popular Games and Apps of 2019*

What’s Next in 2020 for Facebook Advertisers?

We are already witnessing new-age advertising ecosystems building around new trends related to restaurant listing, dining habits, travel and luxury planning, trip advisors, political campaigns, and neo-academic programs. Facebook, together with Google, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn make a formidable group within the dynamic online content publishing and advertising ecosystem.

When we see Facebook’s recent work in facial recognition, AI-based content detection, and Blockchain technology, it’s easy to forecast how 2020 could shape for the company, its Marketing partners and publishers. As a revenue-generating channel, modern CMOs look at Instagram with more seriousness than ever before.

The company’s research analyzes 36 months of data and 44 billion Instagram ad impressions from its own customers. The social ad platform company’s had access to the Instagram ads API since its inception, and so the report that “looks at advertising trends from June 2015 to July 2018, reveals Instagram’s stunning growth since the launch of its Ads API, its price stability over time, and the rise of video-based content on the platform.”

According to a recent blog, Facebook has rolled out whitelisting tools for publishers. This tool allows the adjusting of Video content placement in a customizable manner. Speculations mention AdTech companies like Integral Ad Science, OpenSlate and Facebook’s new brand safety partner Zefr are working together to make the social media advertising ecosystem safer in the coming days.

As part of the latest acquisition in 2019, Facebook also announced that it could be building a shopping video content for all its platforms, similar to what it already has on Instagram. It would compete with YouTube. The services could be made available to leading e-commerce and retail giants, including Amazon.com, Flipkart, and eBay.

I hope to see Facebook continue its AI research and answer all questions related to Data Privacy and Brand Safety concerns. Will Facebook become the new lord of Gaming, Video, and User-generated content in 2020? Let’s wait for that….

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