Facebook is looking to generate significant advertising revenue outside of the gaming market, and if it does, it could be a huge boon to the social media giant, according to Reuters.
Zynga, the maker of Farmville, Mafia Wars and Cityville is a major advertiser, and it continues to be the best source, for now. According to Dan Rose, business director at the DLD media conference in Munich, "For a company like Zynga, Facebook is absolutely the most efficient advertising platform in the world," Rose went on to say, "Games tend to be a leading indicator. As more and more categories become social, certainly that's an opportunity for us from an advertising perspective."
"We're in the middle of a transformation. We're moving from the information web to the social web. We're moving from the wisdom of crowds to the wisdom of friends," said Rose.
The company competes with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) for advertising dollars, as users continue to spend more time on Facebook. Google recently announced a management shakeup, and some are speculating that Google sees Facebook as a major threat for its advertising dollars.
There has been no talk of using Facebook Credits, which the company developed for virtual goods as a real-life means of payment, but that doesn't mean it can't.
The company has been extremely profitable over its life, which is a major reason why Goldman Sachs invested in the company, at a $50 billion valuation. The Goldman deal has brought on a lot of scrutiny to the social networking site, as the SEC is looking into whether Facebook has to go public because of the number of investors it has.
