Facebook roundup: stock back up after dipping below $18, China on hold, Twitter beats Facebook mobile revenues, and more

Facebook roundup: stock back up after dipping below $18, China on hold, Twitter beats Facebook mobile revenues, and more:
Stock rebounds slightly – Facebook shares closed at $18.98 today, up after an all-time low earlier this week when the stock traded at $17.59 mid-day Tuesday. The company this week decided not to make a secondary offering, which would have put more shares on the market and likely hurt the price even further. CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that he would not sell any of his shares for at least a year, and board members Marc Andreessen and Donald Graham say they will only sell what they need to in order to cover taxes, which some on Wall Street took as a sign of confidence. Facebook also officially closed its deal to acquire Instagram this week.
Facebook says no plans for China expansion - Facebook’s North Asia Director Jayne Leung told conference attendees in Hong Kong that the social network has no plans to expand to China, where it is currently blocked by the government. China has an estimated 538 million Internet users among its total population of more than 1.3 billion, but Facebook faces many legal hurdles in the area. Renren and Sina are approved social networks that dominate the country.
Facebook lags behind Twitter mobile revenues for now – Twitter will earn more U.S. mobile advertising revenue this year than Facebook, according to eMarketer, which projects $129.7 million for Twitter and $72.7 million for Facebook. The company did not estimate non-U.S. revenue. Although Facebook has a much larger advertising business on the web, its mobile offering is far newer and less developed. However, eMarketer expects Facebook to grow significantly in mobile, possibly reaching $629.4 million in revenue by 2014, compared to an estimated $444.1 million for Twitter at that time.

Big Break for Small Businesses winners announced - Casale Jewelers (Staten Island, NY), Dick Pond Athletics (Chicago, IL), Dutch Monkey Doughnuts. (Cumming, GA), Hendrick Boards (Orange County, CA) and The Produce Box (Raleigh, NC) were the five winners of the second annual Big Break for Small Business put on by Facebook and American Express. Winners will receive a one-on-one marketing and strategy session with American Express OPEN and Facebook marketing experts, along with $25,000 in cash.
New tool helps users understand Facebook apps they add – Privacy protection company secure.me this week launched App Advisor to protect Facebook users from apps that collect their information and gain permission to take actions on their behalf.  The tool uses information from an analysis of 50 million Facebook users and more than 500,000 apps to provide transparency about how these apps operate after being connected with users’ accounts.



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