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The new Facebook for iOS is a hit with users that will translate to more ad dollars. Facebook revealed today that half of its iOS users updated their app in just 4 days, and now 3 weeks later its App Store review average has risen from 1.5 stars to 4 stars. Mobile product manager Mick Johnson talked to a crew of reporters at Facebook HQ today, echoing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s TechCrunch Disrupt talk, saying that iOS users with the update now consumer twice as many news feed stories, and that means twice as many opportunities to show them news feed ads.
Johnson discussed the mistake of building Facebook’s mobile apps around HTML5, saying “When we*embedded it in our native apps, the performance wasn’t what our users expected or what were were happy with either. The features were there but it didn’t feel like the experience we wanted to use, that wanted to build.”
He still says “I’m long-term bullish on HTLM5 for everything” indicating Facebook may come back to HTML5 once it improves, and will continue relying on it to reach the long-tail of mobile, especially abroad. Facebook platform head Doug Purdy explained that “People think ‘it’s HTML5 or Native’, but its ‘And’.” That’s because the HTML5-powered m.facebook.com is critical for dealing with mobile fragmentation. Purdy siad “There’s no way we’re gong to build native applications for 7,000 devices.”
But until the relaunch, the HTML5 slowness of launching the native iOS app, browsing the feed, and viewing photos were dragging down its review, but also frustrating users such that they’d exit the app prematurely or not open it when they only had a moment. That meant less content being generated, less notifications that drive return visits being sent, and less time spent viewing the news feed. Since Facebook is trying to become a mobile advertising company and those ads are shown in the news feed, slowness translated into missing revenue.
Photos product manager says users are happier and share more photos with the new iOS app, while Johnson says it feels much more alive. I feel it too. I’m more likely to whip out Facebook when I’m standing in line at a cafe or have a spare 30 seconds somewhere else, not just when I know I have multiple minutes to wait for it to load up the news feed. Those extra sessions let Facebook serve me more ads about Pages my friends have Liked or apps they’re using.
The feedbackF receiving has changed. Before people simply demanded the app get faster, now they’re essentially saying it works well, but here’s the new features they want. That fresh insight will help Facebook keep improving the app. In fact, Johnson said Facebook is now moving to a two week release cycle for iOS and a one month cycle for Android.
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