Mobile phones users encouraged to use slim-line Facebook

22/02/2010

Consumers looking to sell their mobile phone to take advantage of an upgrade may be encouraged to do so after Facebook announced a special version for handsets.

Unveiled at the World Mobile Congress by Chamath Palihapitiya, the company's vice-president of user growth, on Tuesday (February 16th), the Zero application will allow more people to access the social networking site on their mobiles.

The facility will be text-only, allowing those on contracts with low bandwidth to utilise the website.

It is expected to be provided for free, regardless of mobile networks' standard data charges.

Tim Gibbon, co-founder of the Social Mobile Portal, commented: "Facebook is a social utility, so it is naturally looking to work with mediums that are relevant to its audiences. Mobile phones are a natural progression because of the sheer number of them."

According to Facebook, it has 400 million active users - 50 per cent of whom log in every day - with 100 million of that figure using a mobile device to access their profiles.

Written by Sarah James