Facebook Launching Google AdSense Rival in 2012
On the heels of my post about Google and Facebook locked in a user engagement death match (or more appropriately, Google chasing Facebook here), John Battelle sallied forth with the prediction that Facebook would launch a third-party ad platform. As in, the one Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his lieutenant COO Sheryl Sandberg, and numerous others have denied planning for the last few years. That would be what Battelle calls "FaceSense," Facebook's version of Google's AdSense. Why not? Facebook is farther along than where Google was when it launched AdSense 10 years ago. I'll summarize Battelle's reasons:
The first point is the one I'm most interested in. Here's why. Facebook already whips Google on user engagement -- 7 hours per person, per month versus less than two hours per month on Google. But where Facebook isn't yet competitive is in ad dollars spent. Thanks to AdWords, AdSense and to a lesser extent, DoubleClick, YouTube and AdMob, Google is on track to make $40 billion in 2011, versus $4 billion for Facebook. As Battelle notes, "there's a lot more attention out there on the Independent Web, and the default ad service for that other 6/7ths is Google's AdSense." To that end, I just don't see how Facebook can ever truly threaten Google without wielding an ad platform that addresses the Web outside the walled garden of the world's largest social network. That ad platform, FaceSense, should arrive this year, according to Battelle. If that happens the social ad sparks between Facebook and Google will fly high. It will also surely heighten concerns in Washington, D.C. and among the EPIC and the EFF and other privacy advocates all over the country who are already concerned that Facebook too often takes liberties with user privacy. |
Comments (6)
Now that is some real good news. Facebook should definitely put an end to Google's monopoly.
I am cent percent sure if Facebook tomorrow launches its beta Facesense it will have more publishers than Adsense within a week !
Posted by Nadeem Khan | January 6, 2012 3:28 PM
That's one way to look at it. But you'll just be trading one older monopolist for a newer one. I guess it depends on whether you think Google is more evil than Facebook, or just happen to like one more than the other.
Posted by Clint Boulton
| January 6, 2012 3:48 PM
Google is at least as interested as you are in having your ads perform well on your site. And they've gone to some work to provide the information you need to optimize your AdSense.
Posted by Red Coffee Machine | January 7, 2012 9:15 AM
This is one of the news i wanted to listen since long time.Google's adsense contribution was more than 60% to its overall revenue but now its reverse.google is going monopolist they want 100% adRevenue with its panda update,youtube and other services.
search results are getting worse,my personal experience says that if you wana search on technical topic bing is the way.
THis monopolist company can be killed by only killing adsense market share.
Posted by Matt Cutts | January 7, 2012 11:58 AM
This news of facesense will be music to those who have been banned from adsense.
Posted by Quartz | January 10, 2012 3:04 AM
Is competition, adsense has been the highest paying ad network for performance for awhile, however with their new monopolistic moves they are becoming the enemy of the independent publisher/
We need more competitors in this space, facebook with facesense, wordpress with word ads, etc. to tackle the monopoly issue in the internet.
Posted by d | January 15, 2012 8:23 PM