Facebook Paper To Remain Ad-Free... For Now

Facebook has no immediate plans to add adverts to its Paper newsreader app, according to COO Sheryl Sandberg, with other products in the social network's line-up likely to be squeezed for monetization first. The company is still in its early stages of analysis, Sandberg said, trying to figure out exactly how Paper users are actually interacting with the app, which combines personal social content from a circle of friends with broader news content from a number of categorized online sources.

"When we launch products, we are willing to invest for a long time before we put ads in it" Sandberg pointed out, CNN reports, while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference this week.

The chief operations officer did concede that there are obvious places where advertising might fit into Paper, though said there was no feeling that the company needed to rush to do so. "We've so much to do with the current monetizing of current products we have" Sandberg concluded.

That monetization will gradually include video adverts in users' timelines, Facebook has previously confirmed, courting some controversy in the process. Most divisive has been the idea that the adverts may automatically begin playing when they are visible, rather than requiring users to actively click on them.

Making cash from mobile apps has been a significant focus for Facebook over the past year, with the social site seemingly surprised by the number of people checking in on their friends' activities on their phone. That led to a jump in revenues in Q4 2013, as Facebook mobile use contributed to more advertising views than on the desktop.