UPDATE 4Facebook invites ads into user profiles
January 24th, 2008, 4:08 am Hobbies And Interests
By Michele Gershberg
NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Social network Facebook
unveiled a new advertising system on Tuesday that will let
companies introduce ads into the user pages of its 50 million
members, and launch dedicated pages on the site for their
brands.
The privately held company has signed on several dozen
partners for the system, including phone company Verizon
Communications Inc (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research), movie rental chain Blockbuster Inc
(BBI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and online auction market eBay Inc (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research).
“What we’re building here is a massive network of real
world connections through which people can share information,”
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told a gathering of
advertising and media executives in New York.
Facebook’s ad partnerships could pose a new challenge to
News Corp’s (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) MySpace, the world’s largest online social
network, and Web search leader Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research).
Both seek to offer advertisers more direct and efficient
ways of reaching audiences on the Web and have announced new
advertising and social network programs in the last week.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) took a minority investment in
Facebook last month that valued the privately held company at
$15 billion, largely on the expectation the social network
would soon be able to mine user profiles for valuable ad data.
Facebook’s new advertising system will test how willing
users are to accept advertising in the most personal of media
formats. Partners said users would soon make it clear what kind
of advertising they wanted to hear.
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