Is Mobile A Threat To Facebook?

I’m a big fan of smartphones and mobile social media marketing, that’s why I started the thumbidextrous site!  

While I am a facebook user I wouldn’t call myself rabid.  Yeah I’ve got a couple of accounts and more than a handful of fan pages that I use only for business reasons. I never had a myspace account, missing out on the whole myspace thing was a blessing in disguise as it went south pretty quickly after Murdoch purchased it.

Will the same thing happen to Facebook as it goes public?

An interesting WebProNews post caught my eye today.   (It’s IPO has some of the things that Facebook lists as threats to it’s business, take a look.

I’ve made what I think the key point is in bold.

What Facebook is really worried about
As you probably know, Facebook has filed for its IPO. With that filing, a lot of new information about the company was revealed. Among the noteworthy tidbits of information: 845 million monthly active users, 483 million daily active users, and over 425 million monthly active users using Facebook’s mobile products. Interestingly enough, Facebook appears to consider growth in mobile use among the key risks to the company. I’m not sure this is the biggest risk, but it’s quite interesting that Facebook considers it to be one.

• If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with Facebook, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed;
• We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising. The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with facebook, could seriously harm our business;
• Growth in use of facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results;
• We may not be successful in our efforts to grow and further monetize the facebook Platform;
• Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of our voting stock;
• The loss of Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl K. Sandberg, or other key personnel could harm our business;

I don’t think more people using Facebook’s mobile products will be the downfall of the company. People are increasingly using their phones (and tablets) to access the web.

Facebook’s mobile experience(s) are often criticized, and there’s no question that the desktop experience is better, but Facebook will continue to work on improving the mobile experience. The fact that they consider mobile such a risk factor only shows that this will be a significant emphasis. Expect more mobile-related acquisitions from the company, and better Facebook apps across mobile platforms.

So what do you think… are you getting weary of Facebook?  Is your use slowing?  What about mobile smartphones and tablets?   If Facebook is thinking this much about Mobile in it’s IPO you can expect something exciting shortly.  What it is I can only guess but what I do know is that you are I are becoming more thumbidextrous every day.