Facebook Shares Rise, Thanks to iPhone 5

A piece of good news for Facebook.

Shares of Facebook rose 7.7 percent just after Apple launched its latest iPhone 5. Facebook closed yesterday’s trading at US$20.93. Some industry experts say the increase can be attributed to the iPhone 5 as it would provide people more opportunity to socialize.

This is good news for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Since going public in May this year, Facebook shares dipped 45 percent as investors are concerned whether Facebook can really make money out of the social networking site.

During the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Zuckerberg said that Facebook is now a mobile company. He acknowledged that Facebook’s performance would be marked by how it will do in mobile.

The latest iPhone has integrated Facebook mobile, bolstering confidence over Facebook. It also sends a stronger message that the company is focusing on mobile and how to make money out of it. Industry analysts also believe that this is the right move for Facebook.

Zuckerberg admitted that he betted too much on HTML5. In a rare moment of candor, he said Facebook spent too much time building mobile products on HTML 5. With the popularity of mobile, Zuckerberg said Facebook applications are more suited for Apple’s mobile software.

Facebook also works well in Android, Google’s mobile operating system. Zuckerberg added that the company will roll out more mobile features in the coming weeks.