Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday he was steering the social network giant to focus more on mobile, saying it would help ease concerns after a "disappointing" stock market debut.
"The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing," Zuckerberg said during an on-stage interview at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.
Facebook has made a priority of following its more than 900 million members onto smartphones and tablet computers, tailoring services and money-making ads for mobile devices.
"It is really clear from the stats and my own personal intuition that a lot of energy in the ecosystem is going to mobile, not desktop (computers)," Zuckerberg said.
"That is the future," he continued. "We are going to be doing killer stuff there."
Zuckerberg was adamant that the company was being underestimated and was on track to make "more money on mobile than we make on desktop."
Zuckerberg's appearance at the conference was his first public interview since the massive public offering on May 18 that was hotly anticipated -- but ended up being a flop.
Facebook shares have lost around half their value since the IPO at $38 a share.
The shares gained 3.30 percent on Wall Street on Tuesday to close at $19.43. In after-hours trading following Zuckerberg's remarks, the stock gained 3.14 percent to $20.06.
Zuckerberg said that despite the early stock market disappointment, "we're going to execute this mission about making the world more connected."
Zuckerberg also rejected criticism that the company is ill-prepared for a shift to mobile devices, where Facebook has only begun to get ad revenues.
"Now, we are a mobile company," he said.
He said the company would pursue its "mission" while seeking to make money for shareholders.
"We are a mission driven company," Zuckerberg said.
"Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. From the beginning we've had this understanding we've had to do both."
Zuckerberg has stated repeatedly, even in pre-IPO paperwork with US regulators, that Facebook did not build great services to make money but made money to build great services.
"The performance of the stock has obviously been disappointing," Zuckerberg said during an on-stage interview at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.
Facebook has made a priority of following its more than 900 million members onto smartphones and tablet computers, tailoring services and money-making ads for mobile devices.
"It is really clear from the stats and my own personal intuition that a lot of energy in the ecosystem is going to mobile, not desktop (computers)," Zuckerberg said.
"That is the future," he continued. "We are going to be doing killer stuff there."
Zuckerberg was adamant that the company was being underestimated and was on track to make "more money on mobile than we make on desktop."
Zuckerberg's appearance at the conference was his first public interview since the massive public offering on May 18 that was hotly anticipated -- but ended up being a flop.
Facebook shares have lost around half their value since the IPO at $38 a share.
The shares gained 3.30 percent on Wall Street on Tuesday to close at $19.43. In after-hours trading following Zuckerberg's remarks, the stock gained 3.14 percent to $20.06.
Zuckerberg said that despite the early stock market disappointment, "we're going to execute this mission about making the world more connected."
Zuckerberg also rejected criticism that the company is ill-prepared for a shift to mobile devices, where Facebook has only begun to get ad revenues.
"Now, we are a mobile company," he said.
He said the company would pursue its "mission" while seeking to make money for shareholders.
"We are a mission driven company," Zuckerberg said.
"Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. From the beginning we've had this understanding we've had to do both."
Zuckerberg has stated repeatedly, even in pre-IPO paperwork with US regulators, that Facebook did not build great services to make money but made money to build great services.