Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has discussed potential partnerships with Samsung Electronics in its bid to boost mobile advertising sales, according to the head of Samsung's handset division, Shin Jong Kyun.
Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004 and it has recently been subjected to widespread scepticism about its financial future. But amid the scrutiny, Zuckerberg claimed that he would rather the firm be an underdog and prove outsiders wrong.
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This was on the back of Facebook's IPO in May 2012 which the Facebook chief had admitted was "disappointing" before vowing to bounce back.
The plan, reported by Bloomberg, to team up with the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, Samsung, would enable Facebook to find further ways of monetising mobile content, as users switch from using desktop PCs to tablets and smartphones.
As well as the Facebook smartphone app, Samsung (along with HTC) was the first smartphone maker to feature the Facebook Home software which allows users easier access to social-networking features such as friends' photos, messages and status updates.
Before Facebook's IPO, many had questioned the firm's strategy to focus on mobile given the severe challenges it was already experiencing with its desktop advertising model.
But last month the firm reported a boost in mobile advertising sales for Q1 2013, which saw overall revenue rise by 38 per cent year on year from $1.06bn (£642m) to $1.46bn (£940m). Advertising on mobile devices accounted for 30 per cent of the $1.25bn total advertising revenue for the quarter, up from 23 per cent in the previous quarter.
However, Facebook's profits have not matched the growth in revenue, with the company reporting a net profit of $219m for Q1, a slight increase on the $205m figure from the same quarter last year.
The company's share price has decreased by 37 per cent since its IPO last May.
