Facebook to reveal mobile ad network at F8 developer conference

Facebook is believed to be gearing up to unveil a mobile ad network at its annual F8 developer conference.

The conference will take place in San Francisco on April 30, and will be streamed live over the web.

After a keynote by Mark Zuckerberg, developers are able to attend a series of conferences on building apps, growing traffic, monetising services or the hacker way.

Facebook is set to unveil a range of new technologies being co-developed with mobile phone equipment maker Ericsson at the conference.

“Facebook and Ericsson announced the Internet.org Innovation Lab, which will reside at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters,” Facebook said in a statement.

“The Innovation Lab will enable developers to test their apps in real world environments, including simulated network degradation and latency.  Developers attending f8 have a chance to preview some of the technologies that will be available in the new lab and test the performance of their apps in a simulated environment before the lab opens later this year.”

Citing multiple sources, Mike Isaac in ReCodeclaims the social media giant will unveil a mobile ad network, in competition to Google.

The ad network will mean Facebook will compete with Google by selling ads on third-party websites as well as its own.

The mobile ad network will be pitched to developers and publishers as a way to leverage the social media giant’s vast databases of user information to get better targeted advertising in their apps and sites.