Tim Peterson says, “Mobile messaging apps are usurping social networks as the shiny new platform through which publishers can distribute their content. Now Facebook is looking to join the fray with its own uber-popular messaging app. Facebook Messenger will soon let publishers distribute their content automatically through the social network’s messaging service, according to three people familiar with the company’s plans. Facebook plans to announce the move with a number of participating publishers in April at its annual developer conference F8, the people said. A Facebook spokeswoman... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “It’s finally here: after months of speculation following Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about the creation of a Dislike button, Facebook has unveiled an extension to the Like button that will allow users to express emotion when reacting to content. As Facebook product manager Sammi Krug explained: For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most. We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals... [...]

Luke Richards says, “The start of the year is a good time to dig into social trends. As usual, our latest Internet Statistics Compendium update sees a swathe of new data from across the world of freely accessible stats and our own in-house research. This month it is the social arm of the compendium that boasts some of the stand-out insights. This is in no small part thanks to two major reports from We Are Social and Internet World Stats. I thought I would take this opportunity to dig into the Latin American social data. After all, it is a huge and still-growing market, as well as being one... [...]

Owen Thomas says, “What went wrong? Most observers are scratching their heads over the surprising announcement that Facebook is winding down Parse, the app-hosting service it bought in 2013 as part of a larger effort to woo mobile developers. Developers will have a year to move their apps off of Facebook’s servers, and can download a version of Parse’s software to run on top of a Node.js server—likely hosted on erstwhile Parse rivals like Salesforce’s Heroku or Amazon Web Services. A Move That’s Hard To Parse The move comes after an exceptionally busy year for Parse.... [...]

Entrepreneur team says, “Facebook Inc reported a 51.7 percent jump in revenue for the final quarter of 2015 as new advertising formats and an improved mobile app drove a sharp rise in ad sales. The company’s total revenue rose to $5.84 billion from $3.85 billion a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 percent to $5.64 billion in the holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising typically spikes. Net income attributable to common shareholders rose to $1.56 billion, or 54 cents per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31 from $696 million, or 25 cents per share in the... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Facebook says its Professional Services local search site is an “early test” and, after speaking with the company, it seems they’re not like to to give it much promotion — at least not now. Facebook told me that the site has been live for “about a month,” but there have been no blog posts or announcements. Facebook also confirmed to me that there’s no integration of this content into its mobile app. Users can, however, access a less robust version of the site via mobile web. While I could search any geography and business category on the desktop, I had... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook today took the next step toward a full rollout of Instant Articles, announcing that the fast-loading format is now available to people using Android devices. The Android launch comes nearly two months after the launch on iOS, and gives publishers with access to the format access to nearly all of the 1.39 billion people who log onto Facebook at least once a month via mobile apps. Facebook introduced the feature last spring, billing it as a way for publishers to give their readers a better mobile reading experience with load times said to be 10 times faster than... [...]

Chris Perkins says, “With little fanfare, a new Facebook feature has emerged. The desktop-only feature called Facebook Professional Services lets users find reviews and information on local businesses. Search Engine Land first reported about it Monday night. A click on one of Facebook’s business categories brings up a list of well-rated local businesses, with links to their business profile pages. There’s a host of categories to choose from though it seems like there are some bugs in the system. For example, clicking on “Event Planning” in New York City brings up... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook is adjusting its advertising policies for Instant Articles, after publishers complained that they were having trouble generating enough revenue from the content posted with the new feature. The social network will now allow publishers to serve more ads within articles and to sell Facebook-only campaigns, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The new policy will allow placement of one ad for every 350 words, instead of the 500-word threshold that was previously enforced. Additionally, Facebook has created a new tool that will automatically place ads every 350... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “This morning, Facebook is announcing that, globally, there are “over 50 million active business Pages” on the site. This figure includes both enterprises and small businesses. In addition, the company is announcing some new communications and customer services tools for Page owners. In September, Facebook introduced a new public badge for Pages. Page owners who respond to 90 percent of messages within five minutes will receive a “very responsive” badge. Now Facebook is rolling out new options and messages around customer response time. Page owners can show messages... [...]