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Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Bot problem? Facebook estimates 8.7% of users are duplicate, miscategorized or spam accounts

Posted: 01 Aug 2012 05:37 PM PDT

Facebook says 8.7 percent of its monthly active user total might violate terms of service and be either duplicate, miscategorized or "undesirable" accounts meant for spamming, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In its quarterly report, Facebook provided updated numbers and new details about illegitimate accounts, which could represent about 83 million users. The company estimates 4.8 percent of its 955 million monthly active users are duplicate accounts. For instance, a user may use one account for connecting with work acquaintances and another for family and close friends.

Facebook says 2.4 percent of accounts are likely miscategorized accounts where users have created personal profiles for a business, organization or pet. These entities should be represented on Facebook with pages, not profiles, according to the social network's terms of service.

Facebook also estimates that 1.5 percent of monthly active users are "undesirable accounts," which are false accounts that are created for spamming or other purposes that violate terms. Earlier this week, a music startup claimed that 80 percent of clicks on its Facebook ad campaign came from bots. Facebook says it is investigating the claims.

According to Facebook's quarterly report, the percentage of accounts that are duplicate or false is significantly lower in developed markets such as the United States or Australia but higher in developing markets such as Indonesia and Turkey. The company says it creates these estimates based on an internal review of a limited sample of accounts. Reviewers identify names that appear to be fake and other behavior that appears inauthentic.

In March, Facebook estimated 5 to 6 percent of its 845 million monthly active users could be false or duplicate accounts. At that time, the company did not offer estimates about what percentage of these accounts were duplicate, miscategorized or otherwise undesirable.

Facebook’s director of platform partnerships announces he’s leaving the company

Posted: 01 Aug 2012 01:50 PM PDT

Facebook Director of Platform Partnerships Ethan Beard announced today that he is leaving the company after more than four years.

Beard publicly announced his departure with a Facebook post seen below. He did not reveal his next plans. Beard joined the Facebook team as director of business development in April 2008. Since January 2009 he has led worldwide developer relations and marketing for the platform, which has expanded significantly with the rise of social marketing and advertising platforms, as well as web and mobile integrations with Open Graph. Beard previously worked at Google as director of social media and director of new business development.

TechCrunch reports that Director of Media Partnerships Justin Osofsky has been promoted to director of platform partnerships and operations following Beard’s departure.

This is yet another top employee leaving the company since it went public in May. Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen announced the end of his time at Facebook last week. Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor announced his departure in June and Director of Corporate Communications Barry Schnitt recently left Facebook for Pinterest.

[Update 8/1/12 2:18 p.m. - Manager of Mobile Platform Product Marketing Jonathan Matus also announced today he's leaving Facebook "to explore new directions and entrepreneurial ideas." Matus joined the company in May 2011 after working for Google on Android product marketing.]

[Update 8/1/12 4:47 p.m. - Platform Marketing Director Katie Burke Mitic also announced that she will be moving on from Facebook after two years with the company. She hinted at creating a mobile start-up in a post on her Facebook Timeline.]

 

Where are Facebook’s mobile-only users coming from? Probably not iPhones

Posted: 01 Aug 2012 01:34 PM PDT

Facebook revealed that 102 million users accessed Facebook solely through mobile devices in June, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, the 23 percent increase since March doesn't necessarily mean that users are ditching desktop in favor of their iPhone or Android device. Facebook is growing rapidly in mobile-first areas like India and Indonesia, which have large bases of feature phone users. This is often overlooked when people consider Facebook's growth and opportunity in mobile because so far the company has not offered a breakdown in the demographics of its mobile users. However, based on trends in feature phone usage and stats Facebook has previously shared, much of the social network's mobile-only usage seems to be coming from emerging markets, though time spent on desktop is likely decreasing in favor of mobile within the U.S. and other developed markets.

Worldwide, Facebook's mobile monthly active users increased 67 percent from 325 million in June 2011 to 543 million in June of this year. The company noted that mobile usage is growing in all regions, and it highlighted the U.S., India and Brazil as key sources of this growth, but it did not say where the mobile-only users are coming from.

However, last month Facebook Head of Mobile Partnerships Emily White shared that 30 percent of new users in India are registering for the site via mobile phones. It's likely these users are among those who never visit Facebook on desktop. The company says it had 59 million MAUs in India in June, an increase of 84 percent compared to the same period in 2011. An analysis using the Facebook ad tool suggests that about 30 percent of India's users are active feature phone users and about 10 percent are Android or iPhone users.

Other emerging markets are also driving the social network's mobile-only growth. White said that 90 percent of users in Africa use mobile phones. According to the document Facebook filed Tuesday, the social network also saw a 24 percent increase in Indonesian users since June 2011. An analysis using the Facebook ad tool suggests that about 36 percent of users in Indonesia are active feature phone users and about 5 percent use iPhones or Android devices. Like in Africa and India, Indonesia is a region where many people are accessing the Internet for the first time through their phones.

In the U.S., Canada, Europe and other desktop-first areas, users are accessing Facebook from both personal computers and mobile devices. Overall, 441 million mobile MAUs accessed Facebook from both platforms in June. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that mobile-connected users are more active than desktop-only users. Specifically, mobile users are 20 percent more likely to use the service on any given day. However, even though these users are still accessing Facebook on desktop, the amount of time they spend on mobile is certainly increasing. The social network experienced a 2 percent decrease in the number of ads delivered in the U.S., despite 10 percent growth in daily users and upping the number of ads per page. CFO David Ebersman attributed this decline to increasing mobile usage and said the company is seeing similar trends in other developed markets.

Facebook reported that 58 million users were mobile-only in December 2011, and 83 million were mobile only in March 2012. The 102 million mobile-only users Facebook reported for June make up little over 10 percent of the social network’s total 955 million monthly active users. In December 2011, 13 percent of total users at the time were mobile-only.

Facebook bug prevents some page owners from being able to hide spam comments

Posted: 01 Aug 2012 10:06 AM PDT

A Facebook bug is causing some page owners to be unable to hide comments that contain spam or inappropriate messages. Page owners can still delete comments, but the “hide” option is temporarily disabled.

Facebook tells us it is aware of the bug and is working on a fix.

Many page owners are frustrated by the issue, which has been around for at least a week based on reports in the Help Center forum. Now when page admins click the X next to a comment, they can only choose “remove,” rather than “hide” or “mark as spam.” The “hide” option is often chosen over “remove” because it prevents unwanted comments from being viewed by other fans, but keeps the comment visible to the person who wrote it. This helps avoid issues where commenters get upset that a page has removed their comments.

Page owners can undo the action if they mistakenly remove a comment, but until the bug is fixed they have to choose whether to leave some unwanted comments on their page or risk upsetting the commenter.

When comments are working properly, hidden comments appear under an ellipsis. They can be expanded and unmarked as spam.

 

torsdag den 2. august 2012 at 07.34