The social network’s shares recover as it fixes its search problem
Facebook’s search offering has long been so dire that any improvement to it is a
welcome relief. But the company will have to do much more in future if it wants
to mount a serious challenge to Google’s dominance of the online-search
business.
This still accounts for the lion’s share of digital advertising. According to
eMarketer, a research firm, an estimated $17.6 billion was spent on search ads
in America alone last year, with Google pocketing three-quarters of that sum.
Facebook has been focused on digital display advertising and its success in
winning business has helped its share price rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes
of a catastrophic stockmarket flotation last year (see chart). If it can pinch
search ads from Google and others too, its shareholders will be even more
delighted.
