Facebook’s renewed emphasis on mobile is beginning to pay off… but mostly for Apple and Google.
According to the findings of a new report from the social networking giant, as highlighted by Tech Crunch today, during the month of July 2012, Facebook referred people to Apple’s App Store and Google Play more than 170 million times.
The referrals came through links that “appear in people’s timelines when their friends are playing Facebook-connected games.”
Facebook’s push for more engagement on its platform, to drive advertising and other monetization efforts (and to counterbalance that drooping stock price), is showing some gains.
As of the latest data provided by the company, Facebook now has 235 million people actively playing games on Facebook.com, 35 million more players than Facebook had just one year ago.
All told, however, usage of apps and games on the network still comprise less than one quarter of Facebook’s total user base.