Facebook shares have lost almost half their value amid concerns over future growth and strategy
The boss of social network Facebook has spoken for the first time of the drop in his company's market value.
But he vowed that Facebook will make more money on phones than on desktops.
"Over the next three to five years, the biggest question on everyone's mind is really going to be how well Facebook does with mobile."
Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Mr Zuckerberg said: "Literally, six months ago we didn't have an ad on mobile."
Earlier this year, Facebook launched native apps for Apple's iOS smartphones and its Android rival by Google.
"Ads have to be more integrated into the product on mobile," Mr Zuckerberg said.
In another exchange, he joked: "Everything I do breaks, but I fix it quickly."
Facebook is the word's most popular social network with 950 million users.
When asked of constant rumours that he was building a Facebook phone, he rejected the speculation and pointed to the site's huge reach.
"If we make a phone we could get maybe 10 million users? Twelve million users? That doesn't move the needle for us.
"Building a phone is the wrong strategy for us."
He admitted the fall in Facebook's share price had made it harder to find and retain staff. "It doesn't help," he said.
"There are tons of people that are super-pessimistic," Mr Zuckerberg said. "I would personally rather be underestimated. It gives us latitude to go out and make some big bets."
Since their debut at $38 in May, Facebook shares have lost 49% of their value. They closed at $19.43 on Tuesday.
Mr Zuckerberg owns about 444 million Facebook shares plus an option to issue another 60 million.
Last month, Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and one of Facebook's earliest backers, sold much of his stake and made more than $1bn in total from his investment in Facebook.
One of his insights was that the platform was more similar to TV than a PC - ads have to be closely integrated into the product rather than shown to the side of a column.
He added that the benefit was that people were consequently more likely to interact with them, meaning users might prove to be more valuable to the firm when on their handset than on their laptop.
It was also illuminating to hear him describe a previous focus on HTML5 language for mobile apps as being his firm's biggest strategic mistake to date.
Facebook's iOS mobile product manager Mick Johnson recently refused to describe the move in similar terms when he discussed the recent relaunch of the iPhone and iPad app in native code.
His boss's admission is a red light to others building services on the technology.
Source: BBC news business
When asked of constant rumours that he was building a Facebook phone, he rejected the speculation and pointed to the site's huge reach.
"If we make a phone we could get maybe 10 million users? Twelve million users? That doesn't move the needle for us.
"Building a phone is the wrong strategy for us."
He admitted the fall in Facebook's share price had made it harder to find and retain staff. "It doesn't help," he said.
"There are tons of people that are super-pessimistic," Mr Zuckerberg said. "I would personally rather be underestimated. It gives us latitude to go out and make some big bets."
Since their debut at $38 in May, Facebook shares have lost 49% of their value. They closed at $19.43 on Tuesday.
Mr Zuckerberg owns about 444 million Facebook shares plus an option to issue another 60 million.
Last month, Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and one of Facebook's earliest backers, sold much of his stake and made more than $1bn in total from his investment in Facebook.
Analysis
Leo Kelion Technology reporter
Mark Zuckerberg's key message in the interview was that Facebook was focusing on mobile - acting to both improve the way its apps work and finding ways to make money from them.One of his insights was that the platform was more similar to TV than a PC - ads have to be closely integrated into the product rather than shown to the side of a column.
He added that the benefit was that people were consequently more likely to interact with them, meaning users might prove to be more valuable to the firm when on their handset than on their laptop.
It was also illuminating to hear him describe a previous focus on HTML5 language for mobile apps as being his firm's biggest strategic mistake to date.
Facebook's iOS mobile product manager Mick Johnson recently refused to describe the move in similar terms when he discussed the recent relaunch of the iPhone and iPad app in native code.
His boss's admission is a red light to others building services on the technology.
Source: BBC news business
Though listed companies' earnings dropped 13.58 per cent on year to Bt344.4 billion in the first half, CIMB Securities (Thailand) remains overweight on the Thai stock market.
Much of the fall was attributable to stock losses of energy and petrochem companies.
"We believe this will reverse in the third quarter as oil prices bounce back. Thus, we reiterate our Overweight call on the petrochem sector as earnings are poised to recover in the third quarter," CIMB said in a research note.
The house still expects the SET index to end this year at 1,350 points. The index today showed a slight loss of 0.49 point to end the day at 1,223.91 points.
Market catalysts include strong private investment and consumer spending. About 32 per cent of the companies under its coverage reported better-than-expected quarterly results while 33 per cent were in line and 35 per cent lower than expected. It consequently revised down earnings forecasts by 1.3 per cent for this year and by 1.6 per cent for next year. Following the revisions, it expects the Thai market to show 22 per cent core earnings growth this year and 15 per cent next year.
"We believe the Thai market will continue to do well on the back of strong private investment and consumer spending. Improved overseas sentiment and strong foreign inflows are likely to support the market," it said.
After selling for several months, foreign investors turned net buyers in July and this buying momentum is expected to continue. Foreign ownership of the Thai market improved to
almost 26 per cent recently, although still low compared with the 34 per cent in 2008. Foreign investors account for about a quarter of the market by trading volume with retail investors making
up 53 per cent, local institutions 8 per cent and brokers' proprietary trading the remainder.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand’s data showed that in the first half of this year, 447 listed companies showed a decline in net profits though combined revenue increased by 13.42 per cent to Bt5.06 trillion. Banking, food & drink, commerce, real estate and medical sectors showed the highest earnings growth.
In the second quarter alone, their combined sale revenue reached Bt2.55 trillion while earnings fell to Bt130.4 billion due to higher sale and interest costs. Moreover, they also showed combined foreign exchange loss of Bt7.35 billion, against Bt12.7 billion forex gain in the first quarter.
"The results followed a drop in earnings of energy, steel and agricultural stocks, as well as insurance companies which booked losses from last year’s floods. Excluding results of companies involved in commodities markets, the listed companies’ earnings in the second quarter and first half would have shown a 32.01 per cent and 8.80 per cent growth rate from the same period last year," said SET President Charamporn Jotikasthira
