Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg met with Samsung top executives about a potential partnership to develop a "Facebook-friendly phone."
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, plans to carry forward the company's mobile objectives by partnering with Samsung, the world's biggest smartphone maker. Facebook wants to boost advertising sales from mobile devices. Zuckerberg met Samsung's heir Lee Jay-yong and co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun to discuss plans on collaborating over a "Facebook-friendly phone," according to the Korea Herald
In a statement outside the company's Seoul Office Tuesday, Shin said he discussed the state of the IT industry with the Facebook CEO, reports Bloomberg. But Zuckerberg did not comment before leaving the building and neither did a Facebook spokesperson who later confirmed the meeting.
Zuckerberg unveiled the "Facebook Home," last April, a potential Android launcher for select high-end smartphones including Samsung Galaxy S4. The Home software did not get much appreciation from users with a poor rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars on Google Play. The Taiwan phone maker HTC included the Facebook Home as a pre-installed launcher in its HTC First handset, which was launched at an event held at Facebook's very own Menlo Park headquarters.
Facebook did not see much success with the Home software and its reaching out to Samsung for a Facebook-friendly phone is a move to boost its future revenues.
eMarketer reports that Facebook is expected to make over $2 billion this year in mobile ad revenues, which translates to a hike of more than 333 percent from 2011, when there were hardly any revenues from this source.
But Korea Herald reported that the smartphone giant may not be convinced of joining hands with Facebook to "nurture a second Google, which is now becoming a formidable rival for Samsung in the handset business."
But Google's upcoming Moto X phone to be launched later this year, which is likely to compete against the Samsung Galaxy S4 with its high-end specs and low pricing, makes it the right time for Facebook to propose a new operating system.
Before meeting the Samsung executives, Zuckerberg paid a 30-minute visit to President Park Geun-hye and discussed potential ways to support small and mid-sized Korean enterprises in getting a global foothold, Forbes reported.
