The largest social network Facebook is suspected of defrauding its advertisers. Initial suspicions could spill over into a series of high-profile scandals: given that Mark Zuckerberg's company has not been doing very well lately, further negative news could further reduce the value of an already falling stock.
These are tough times for Facebook. A very unsuccessful placement of shares led to the fact that the price for them fell by almost half - from the initial 38 dollars to 20. Top managers began to leave the company, Facebook is accused of pressure on some independent software manufacturers. And now, to top it all off, the company has been caught cheating advertisers. Considering that the main income of Mark Zuckerberg's company comes from advertising, the blow turned out to be very sensitive.
A young company, Limited Run, made claims to Facebook: during its own investigation, it found that 80% of clicks on advertising banners on a social network were made from fake accounts. This means that the advertising companies were paying Facebook for fake clicks, which really did not bring them any profit. In other words, the social network received 80% of its profits illegally, deceiving advertisers. Limited Run also had other complaints - the company said that for changing the page name, they were required to increase the advertising budget on the social network by 2 thousand dollars. Outraged advertisers did not hesitate in expressions, calling the workers of the social network scum.
In response to the charges, Facebook representatives said they were already investigating fake accounts. As for the requirement of money for changing the name of the page, they have this procedure completely free.
Facebook's management can be understood - if the story with the “cheating” of clicks develops, other companies may also present their claims, and the social network has a lot of them. If similar machinations were carried out with the banners of other advertisers, then the social network, at best, will have to abandon dishonest methods of playing the game, which will dramatically reduce the company's profitability. Which, in turn, will further bring down the capitalization of the company. After all, Facebook's only real capital is a billion social network users. It is they who attract advertisers, and if the latter find out that they are being deceived on such a serious scale, truly black times may come for Mark Zuckerberg and his social network.
