This article is from the archive of our partner .
Stuck in a 40 day quiet period following its IPO, Facebook has to show, rather than tell, that it has a real business model that works. As the company's stock continues to fall -- its trading around the 26 mark nowadays -- the social network has covertly addressed its two weakest areas: advertising and mobile. As of now, the tech soothsayers say Facebook's advertising has neither advertisers convinced nor users engaged, but that's just on desktop. For mobile, the social network admittedly has no idea what it's doing, and in its SEC-imposed cone of silence, Facebook can't stick up for itself. But we can take yesterday's announcement of a mobile app center as a sort of symbolic retaliation. Armed with that plus this Comscore data set to come out next week, Facebook might finally prove it's worth something to investors.
During yesterday's announcement of a mobile app center, Facebook included some enlightening stats, pointing to both its importance and popularity. Facebook drove its users to Apple’s App Store 83 million times last month, notes TechCrunch's Kim Mai Cutler. Plus, of the top 10 grossing iOS and Android apps, Facebook was integrated into more than half on each platform -- six and seven respectively. Even with these positive stats, as critics have said, Facebook doesn't make much money off of this deal. Apple offers a 5 percent commission to referrals to app store downloads, but, as Cutler notes, Facebook gives 30 percent of its profits to carriers, so it's not making much. But, Facebook's giving up these short term profits for something more valuable long term. As Cutler explains: "It shows that the Facebook platform matters more than ever for mobile developers, which is a big step forward from last year. With Facebook’s expected integration into Apple’s iOS 6, they’ll become even more of a necessity."