Facebook: Google+ validates our social vision

Social networking giant Facebook on Wednesday said the launch of Google's own social network is a mere validation of what they already know about social, and that it poses no threat to their dominant position. Facebook director for sales in Asia Pacific Dave Yang said, in his speech at the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) Summit, that the Google+ social network is not a threat to Facebook. "Google is an awesome company, and we respect them," Yang said. "But in Facebook, we do only one thing, and that is social, period." Focus on being social Yang said their strong focus on their sole product is what allows them to be the market leader in the social space, continuously dwarfing other similar platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. In its latest report, Facebook said it has more than 750 million users worldwide and still counting. Some 25 million of these users are in the Philippines, now dubbed the social networking capital of the world. But Google+, though still in its field testing phase, has already racked up more than 20 million users with a month of going live. Yang said Facebook continues to ramp up user take-up by introducing new ways by which users can access the popular social network, keeping the social network on track to breach the 1 billion users mark. Traffic for mobile phone users Part of the strategy includes its recent launch of the Facebook application for java phones, a move seen to boost Facebook traffic from mobile phones. "We've partnered with telecom firms in the Philippines to give users a smartphone-like experience on a non-smartphone phone," Yang said. "We know that majority of people in the Philippines don't necessarily have smartphones, but we still want to give them the experience of Facebook on their mobile phones," he added. Though smartphones have grown significantly in adoption around the world, its use in the Philippines is still secondary to feature phones. The May 2010 AdMob Metrics study reports that though the country has a remarkable 85 percent mobile phone penetration, smartphones only make up 38 percent of that figure. With the new java app, Yang said the 75 percent year-on-year growth of the Facebook user base in the Philippines and the average 77 minutes a day people spend on the social network should see further growth. — ELR/VS, GMA News