Facebook is struggling to monetize its increasing traffic from mobile devices to top revenue growth, and purchasing Opera would be a faster solution than building its own platform or browser, analysts added. However, the mobile generation of Web companies with the founding of Instagram two years ago, are purely mobile-focused companies who don’t even bother with their websites.  They’re totally focused on their phone or tablet applications.

Opera would be a good acquisition for Facebook on several fronts as it would shore up the limited experience of Facebook on mobile devices, address Facebook’s mobile monetization problem, help Facebook retain online game developers leaving the social media giant over an inadequate mobile solution and allow Facebook to now target ads on the mobile device.

Opera would be a perfect acquisition for Facebook as Facebook would get access to opera’s mobile platform, along with 170 million Opera users that would give the company extensive commercial relationships with mobile phone manufacturers and operators.

Still, several challenges still remain.

The DNA required to be a successful company in the mobile generation is different.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that those companies who’ve risen to the top of their generation when they’re born seem incapable of turning their back on that and becoming equally successful in another generation to follow.  There’s a founding DNA when you start a company and, as you grow and succeed in that generation, that founding DNA gets baked in the cake of the company.  In other words, that founding DNA becomes part of the culture as well as how the organization structures itself and its processes.  Enormous amounts of people within the company have as part of their job description to protect the core product that becomes successful in that generation and is responsible for the lion’s share of the company’s revenues and profits.

Another obstacle could be Google, which has extensive relationships with Opera. Google is Opera’s default search partner for Opera Mini and Opera Mobile worldwide outside Russia/CIS, making the firm a key relationship for Google. If the firm continued to grow organically, it would be able to maintain several parallel relationships with firms like Facebook and Google so if one of them wanted full control, the premium would have to be significant. Opera founder Jon S. Von Tetzchner has said that Opera should focus on organic growth and delivering results.

Join the conversation on Tradeseam and share your ides and thoughts on how Facebook can solve the mobile monetization challenge that has dampened investors expectations in Facebook after its recent IPO debacle.

Tags: social media marketing, social networking, social networks

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.