Barcelona - Arabstoday
On Monday, Facebook revealed big plans for mobile, saying that it will be working with several wireless carriers worldwide to process payments for applications. The company outlined its plans in a blog post. Facebook executive Douglas Purday said that more people use the mobile Web to access Facebook than “from our top native apps combined” and that the company is working to make mobile a more seamless experience. Facebook’s chief technology officer Bret Taylor also announced the plans at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Participating networks around the world include Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T as well as Deustche Telekom, Vodafone, KDDI and Softbank. Under the new agreement, users will be able to charge their carrier bills for anything they buy on Facebook. The social network also said that it will be working with partners includingMicrosoft, Netflix, Adobe and — of course — Zynga, to adopt common Web app standards. The partners will work together in something called the W3C Mobile Web Platform Core Community Group, aimed at encouraging developers to make better apps for the Web by decreasing mobile browser fragmentation. “Our hope is that these initiatives — the Open Graph, the Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group at the W3C, and our partnerships with carriers to improve mobile payments — will enable developers all over the world to build mobile experiences that improve the lives of billions of people,” Purdy wrote. As revealed when the company announced its plans to go public, Facebook has said that its inability to generate ad revenue is a risk factor for the company. In the past, the company has not put ads on mobile versions of its service.