Facebook seeks link with mobile carriers

Facebook said it could team up with mobile operators on payments, in an offer that would give them back part of the revenue and influence they have lost in recent years to Apple and Google. Speaking for the first time at Mobile World Congress, the industry's biggest gathering, Facebook said operators could help it make money from its hundreds of millions of mobile users buying games or music on the social network. Mobile operators have been increasingly sidelined by internet companies, which often appeal directly to consumers, hog network capacity with bandwidth-hungry services like YouTube, and compete with the telcos' own products. "Facebook and mobile were made for each other," chief technology officer Bret Taylor said on Monday, echoing then-Google chief executive Eric Schmidt's first overtures to the industry at the Barcelona event two years ago. Facebook said earlier this month in its filing for an initial public offering more than half its 845 million active users accessed its site from a mobile device. It has yet to figure out how to make money from mobile — the vast majority of its $3.7 billion (Dh13.5 billion) revenue last year came from ads delivered to desktop users. That mobile is central to Facebook's future success is clear, but whether it will prove a valuable partner or a value-destroying competitor to mobile operators is less so. Facebook has a popular messaging service that allows users to have group chats and exchange photos and video in real time for free, which is drawing users away from SMS text services offered by telcos.