Does Facebook really drive 16% of global mobile phone sales?

Facebook recently authorized Deloitte to quantify the impact of Facebook on the world economy. The report shows that Facebook created $227 billion in wealth and 4.5 million jobs worldwide in 2014. It is worth noting that the report claims that Facebook actually brought in 16% of global mobile phone sales. Is this really the case? Or what is the basic logic of this data?

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg explains that Facebook is the main driver of why people buy mobile phones, especially in developing countries. People often go to a mobile phone store and say, "I want Facebook." In fact, users in some places often confuse Facebook with the Internet. Our understanding of Sandberg's explanation is that some users buy smartphones only for the purpose of using Facebook.

We do not deny that Facebook is one of the most popular apps on smartphones, as evidenced by the fact that Facebook is in the top ten apps on both smartphone ecosystems (iOS and Android). However, is Facebook the only reason for users to buy smartphones? Even for heavy Facebook users.

The industry should remember that in order to promote its own applications, Facebook launched the first mobile phone HTC First equipped with Facebook Home application in 2013, priced at $450. However, due to poor sales, AT&T began to reduce the price of this phone a few weeks after it was launched. Even with the price reduction, HTC First's sales in the first month were only about 15,000 units. In the end, due to the dismal sales, Facebook gave up the development of Facebook Home. The reason, in addition to the price, is mainly because it violates the market and the basic right of users to choose and use.

Speaking of Facebook Home, it can transform an ordinary Android phone into a Facebook phone because it puts the social network at the core of the Android phone system (the interface of the Android phone's startup and lock screen is various Facebook applications).

As we all know, Google has built many of its own applications through the Android system, but they do not occupy the entire screen (or homepage) of the smartphone. In other words, users still have a lot of autonomy in setting the homepage. Usually, various update information will be displayed on the lock screen and homepage of the mobile phone, prompting users to pay attention to whether there are missed calls, new emails, unread messages and App updates, but when users use Facebook Home, all of the above information that should appear will disappear. Here, Facebook Home is obviously suspected of invading the homepage of users' smartphones. Just after the release of Facebook Home, a related survey by the well-known technology blog Mashable showed that in the choice of whether Facebook Home is an invasion of the Facebook homepage, 77% of the voting users chose "yes", and 84% of the voting users are very concerned about this "invasion", which shows that Facebook Home gives users a feeling of forced buying and selling. And this is what users dislike the most, even the so-called heavy mobile phone users who use Facebook.

It is not difficult to see that the factors that determine whether users buy smartphones are actually composed of a series of factors, such as price, innovation, brand, practicality, etc. In fact, long before the launch of Facebook Home, Microsoft had launched the social function-focused mobile phone Kin, and ESPN also launched its own mobile device, but both products ultimately suffered a disastrous defeat. In addition, the abortion of Amazon's Fire smartphone (focusing on Amazon's related services and applications) last year and many other facts have indirectly proved that users will not buy smartphones for exclusive content, services or applications.

In addition, judging from the fact that Facebook has been continuously launching Facebook apps for phones with lower configurations, even for feature phones, Facebook is far from being the only factor that determines the choice of mobile phones by users. For example, Facebook recently launched a lightweight app, Facebook Lite, which is specially developed for mid- and low-end phones in emerging markets in order to compete for users in the third world. In fact, what we see here is exactly the opposite logic to Sandberg's. Smartphones (including feature phones) are the cause of Facebook's emergence, not the result as Sandberg said. On the contrary, it has been proven that Facebook still needs to rely on mobile phones to promote its own applications.

In summary, we believe that the claim that Facebook brought 16% of the global smartphone market lacks basic logical relationship with the development of the industry and the market, and is suspected of exaggeration. Of course, it is understandable to prove one's influence, but it is another matter to prove one's influence with such untenable logic, even when the facts of itself and other manufacturers have proven the exact opposite.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.