Facebook competes for location

10/05/10 posted by Annie

The glorious social media king, Facebook, now looks like it may take a giant leap into location-based social networking. McDonalds will be the first brand to try out Facebook's new features, which we might start seeing any day now. Users will be able to check in at different locations, just like the existing startups that use location-based features like Foursquare and Gowalla. Facebook's population is now second to only China and India - meaning if it were a country it would be the third most populated. Now all these people will be able to incorporate geolocation technology with the rest of their daily Facebooking. How are the budding networks of Gowalla, etc to compete? What's even more unsettling, for Google fans atleast, is it might give Facebook another edge in advertising competition, cutting into Google's revenue stream.

Furthermore, stats show that half of UK's mobile internet traffic is from Facebook, and Facebook trumps Google in weekly US internet traffic. And just when you thought Facebook supremacy had reached new levels, take a look at these statistics on Mashable relaying that a startling 76% of Generation Y are checking Facebook or Twitter after cosying up in bed at night and/or before leaving their bed in the morning. There are also stats remarkable percentage of under 25-year-olds who sms while using the toilet or having sex, but you can check out that data in your own time. The point for you and your business is it's never too late to get on the Facebook bandwagon!