Europe Gets Its Mobile Facebook

Jeremy Kirk over at Computer World is reporting today that Facebook has signed an agreement with Vodafone, a Europe based wireless provider, to launch Facebook mobile in the UK and Germany.

Facebook also plans to launch a similar mobile site in Greece, Italy, Ireland and Portugal. This is a huge step for Facebook as the mobile market in Europe is much larger than the market in the US.

I am not saying that Europe has more cell phones than the US but mobile Europeans use their phones much differently than Americans. The European model for mobile focuses more on total integration than simple call connection.

Currently the Facebook mobile site has no advertising and integrates MMS as the primary form of image and video loading. Unlike the US mobile site the European site focuses on letting users create and operate a Facebook profile sans a standard computer.

The idea is to lure more users to Facebook by removing the necessity of a computer to connect socially online. Creating a strong foothold in Europe will allow Facebook to assure its growth will continue as more and more people turn to mobile solutions for all their networking needs.

Would you be more apt to use Facebook more often if you didn’t need log into a computer and could use the entire site from your mobile? Do you use mobile Facebook now? What functions would you like to see on mobile Facebook?

 



Recommended Articles


Inside Social Apps 2012 is Less Than Two Weeks Away

Inside Social Apps, held on February 8-9 in San Francisco, is less than two weeks away. This is the third conference on the future of monetization on social and mobile platforms. Leaders from the industry will share their views on today's most formidable challenges affecting social and mobile apps and games in 2012. Inside Social Apps conferences sell out in advance, so take advantage of early registration pricing. Early bird rates end on February 1, so register today.

12 Comments »

  1. I find this very odd news, I'm in the UK and I've been using Facebook mobile on my Nokia N73 for nearly a year! I have friends who've been accessing it on other networks too for the last six months…

    Comment by Leon — February 7, 2008 @ 7:18 am

  2. I find this very odd news, I’m in the UK and I’ve been using Facebook mobile on my Nokia N73 for nearly a year! I have friends who’ve been accessing it on other networks too for the last six months…

    Comment by Leon — February 7, 2008 @ 11:18 am

  3. Bring it on!I guess you mean that there will start to be UK networks appearing in the options when you go to register your mobile?I've certainly managed to publish photos from my mobile but I can't register the number and get the Facebook activation code back by SMS as no UK networks are supported.What is really annoying is that my PDA can't access the current mobile version of Facebook (WAP?) and the iPhone version looks terrible. I'm sure it's great on an iPhone but not on anything else.

    Comment by Tony — February 7, 2008 @ 11:45 pm

  4. Bring it on!

    I guess you mean that there will start to be UK networks appearing in the options when you go to register your mobile?

    I've certainly managed to publish photos from my mobile but I can't register the number and get the Facebook activation code back by SMS as no UK networks are supported.

    What is really annoying is that my PDA can't access the current mobile version of Facebook (WAP?) and the iPhone version looks terrible. I'm sure it's great on an iPhone but not on anything else.

    Comment by Tony — February 8, 2008 @ 12:45 am

  5. yeah I'm in the UK and I've been using facebook on my phone for over a year too (and I know some friends use it too, but not as much as me), both through opera mini mobile phone browser and my inbuilt mobile phone browser; as nov through beginning of january my mobile phone operator o2 offer a promotional free access to facebook on your phone (no data charges), which they sent me an advert text about.I imagine this was sponsored by facebook, and now on the o2 mobile internet homepage facebook is the first biggest link on the page, so I reckon they must have some kind of agreement with facebook also.However I think the question is will any internet browsing take off on mobiles in the UK until mobile phone browsers become better/opera mini is adopted by more people? I found it a complete pain to navigate facebook on the mobile phone browser in order to get facebook access for free. People find phone internet so difficult to use it will barely make any difference to facebook takeup unless that is changed.

    Comment by Ruth — February 9, 2008 @ 11:03 am

  6. yeah I'm in the UK and I've been using facebook on my phone for over a year too (and I know some friends use it too, but not as much as me), both through opera mini mobile phone browser and my inbuilt mobile phone browser; as nov through beginning of january my mobile phone operator o2 offer a promotional free access to facebook on your phone (no data charges), which they sent me an advert text about.

    I imagine this was sponsored by facebook, and now on the o2 mobile internet homepage facebook is the first biggest link on the page, so I reckon they must have some kind of agreement with facebook also.

    However I think the question is will any internet browsing take off on mobiles in the UK until mobile phone browsers become better/opera mini is adopted by more people? I found it a complete pain to navigate facebook on the mobile phone browser in order to get facebook access for free. People find phone internet so difficult to use it will barely make any difference to facebook takeup unless that is changed.

    Comment by Ruth — February 9, 2008 @ 12:03 pm

  7. Facebook mobile (m.facebook.com) used to work on my Nintendo Ds Browser.

    Now it says unknown content.

    Gutted man :-(

    Anyone know of a way round it?

    Comment by Liz — January 18, 2009 @ 2:06 am

  8. hi friends

    Comment by ahmed abbas — August 31, 2009 @ 10:56 pm

  9. it's getting hot .. make me a thunderblot

    Comment by Ahmed Abbas — August 31, 2009 @ 10:57 pm

  10. I want of you , give me just website for to connect or call in Europe please and thanx

    Comment by yassine — November 4, 2009 @ 4:28 am

  11. Slù

    Comment by Yassine Zizou — November 4, 2009 @ 4:31 am

  12. love this niche……..thumb's up

    Comment by Diana Hill — August 14, 2011 @ 6:16 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Send us a Tip

tips@allfacebook.com
[Inside Social Apps 2012]
[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]
[How can Facebook change your business?]

Upcoming Events

Inside Social Apps

February 8-9, 2012 | San Francisco

Inside Social Apps

Developing & monetizing on social & mobile platforms

Social Gaming Summit

23-24 May, 2012 | Berlin

Social Gaming Summit

Where Gaming Meets the Social Web

AllFacebook Marketing Conference

June 28-29, 2012 | San Francisco

AllFacebook Marketing Conference

Your how-to guide for Facebook marketing.