Facebook is Building a Mobile E-Commerce Platform — and Advertisers Who've Seen It Love It

Facebook did not get much attention last October when it officially launched "mobile app install ads," in part because the company unveiled about a dozen new ad products in 2012 and, from the users' point of view, many of them kinda looked the same. But several of Facebook's big advertising clients who have used the ads in the fourth quarter indicated that the ads can be used to develop e-commerce on Facebook, turning the social network into a mobile shopping and sales device.