On Monday it was reported that social network Facebook had moved up the list of the world’s highest value companies.
This was according to its stock market worth, with it now in the top 10. In doing so, the internet giant has successfully knocked Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, out.
At the close of trading on Tuesday, Facebook’s value rose by 3.7% to $238bn (£151.2bn), compared to Walmart’s $234bn (£148.7bn). For those that don’t know, Walmart is a retail giant in the USA and also the parent company of ASDA.
To put this into some perspective for us here in the sunny UK, Facebook is now worth more than Royal Bank of Scotland ($60.2bn), Barclays ($63.7bn), Lloyds ($84.4bn), and the Legal & General Group ($25bn) combined ($233.3bn, or £148.2bn).
One reason for this increase may be due to the announcement by Christopher Cox, Facebook’s Chief Product Officer, that the social company wants to create fully immersive mobile. This news was announced at the Cannes Lions advertising festival on the 23rd.
The social media giant now has 1.25 billion active users per month who use mobile devices to access its news feeds, while advertising on handhelds now makes up over 70% of the company’s ad sales.
Social media has a massive impact on how we use the internet, so businesses are increasingly using it to advertise what they sell or do. However, the question of what impact this will have on consumers is one that is asked often, but it seems that this medium, for the foreseeable future, is only going to get stronger. Clearly, social media will likely continue to play a large part in online advertising and branding.
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- Facebook: the giant just got a little bigger - June 25, 2015
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