Facebook looks set to commercialise its mobile user base by announcing a partnership with Bango at the same time as the social networking site is widely expected to introduce its own mobile advertising platform.

Bango has signed an agreement to provide payment services to Facebook, although Bango’s board believes it is too early to accurately forecast the level of business which the deal may generate.

Nevertheless, the deal will enable Facebook’s army of mobile users to purchase apps, Facebook Credits, and other related items, directly via its mobile app and/or mobile website with the costs charged directly to a user’s mobile phone bill.

The opportunity is immense. Facebook reported more than 425 million active mobile users in December 2011– representing 50.3% of its total user base of 845 million. This represents growth of over 20% from the 350 million mobile users reported in September, 2011 – equivalent to 43.8% of its total monthly users.

So far, however, Facebook has been unable to monetize its mobile base, but comments within its recent IPO indicate that situation may soon change. "We currently do not show ads or directly generate any meaningful revenue from users accessing Facebook through our mobile products, but we believe that we may have potential future monetization opportunities such as the inclusion of sponsored stories in users' mobile News Feeds," Facebook wrote in its IPO filing.

The combination of mobile advertising and a mobile payment solution would be a strong pull for many brands. According to data in mobile^SQUARED’s Mobile Consumer Trends database, total mobile commerce users in the UK numbered around 17.7 million as of 4Q11 – representing 35% of the total user base. In the US, the proportion was lower with around 45.6 million m-commerce users representing 19% of the total mobile user base.

By taking an average of these numbers, and applying to the Facebook mobile users, we can extrapolate a potential market of 90.5 million Facebook mobile commerce users as of 4Q11.

Similarly,  Mobile Consumer Trends shows mobile average reach in the UK was 26% of the total mobile user base as of 4Q11, with 14% actually buying goods or services as a result of viewing mobile ads. In the US, reach was 25% of the mobile user base with a total of 12% buying as a result.

Again, by taking an average of the US and UK figures, mobile^SQUARED can extrapolate a total mobile advertising reach of Facebook mobile users of 107.3 million with 52.6 million actually buying as a result.

gavin@mobilesquared.co.uk