Facebook still working toward monetizing mobile

HTML5-based mobile website could let developers collect Credits from users

Play Facebook games on your iPhone? There’s no app for that, and there might never be. But you might not need an app for that purpose if the latest cascade of rumors and reports are to be believed.

The gargantuan social networking service is “in talks” to let developers sell virtual goods through its platform on mobile devices, sources have told Bloomberg. Specifically, Facebook aims to give developers this ability via mobile Web browsers, like Safari on the iPhone, not through apps.

This latest report mirrors increasing evidence that Facebook is amping up to release the results of Project Spartan, an ambitious effort to take the network’s third-party applications to mobile devices with a powerful HTML5 site. Hundreds of millions of Facebook’s 750 million userbase access the site via mobile devices, and the company says mobile users are among the most active. For these two reasons, it is imperative that the site’s third-party offerings be ubiquitious, whether on the Web or the mobile Web.

Facebook, in accordance with its policy on speculation, has declined to comment.

As mobile becomes a more and more influential space where users spend their Internet time, Facebook needs to adapt so that it can make money from the platform. And it would, of course, like to do so without handing cash to Apple through the App Store.

On July 1, Facebook made it mandatory that developers on its platform switch to Facebook Credits as the sole vehicle for accepting payments from users. The move secures in-app purchases as a solid stream of revenue for Facebook, which takes a 30 percent cut from all sales.

The 30/70 publisher/developer ratio parallels the policy in Apple’s App Store, something Sean Ryan, head of games partnerships at Facebook, has no problem admitting:

"We should be able to take that -- no different than Apple does -- and get to scale in that business, so that developers hopefully can focus just on making great games. We should be able to get to where developers are thrilled they don't have to deal with this, just like with Apple."

Facebook earns some money for providing the platform and developers get an easy way to collect cash from users. Watching Facebook’s system and Apple’s system collide on the mobile platform will be interesting to see in the coming months.