Facebook chief vows to fight back after "disappointing" share performance

Zuckerberg claims Wall Street misunderstands the firm's mobile prospects

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has admitted for the first time that the drop of his company's share price since its IPO in May was "disappointing", but claimed the tech giant would bounce back.

The social media company was valued at more than $100bn (£63.8bn) for its IPO but it has since lost more than half of its capitalisation as investors have become unsure of its advertising model as more users move from PCs to smartphones and tablets.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, in his first interview since the IPO, Zuckerberg hit back citing progress in the last six months in mobile.

He said that the recently launched mobile advertising model for applications on Apple iOS and Android was delivering better results than the adverts that appear on the social media site on PCs.

"One of the main things that I think is misunderstood right now is how fundamentally good [the company's mobile prospects are]", Zuckerberg claimed.

However, he lamented the company's initial decision to use open web standards instead of creating specific apps for the iPhone and Android smartphones as "its biggest strategic mistake".

Future of Facebook

Zuckerberg suggested that the firm was to offer new advertising products but declined to comment further. He also said that search - which he claimed gets around one billion queries a day - could be a growth area for the company. The organisation's work on a competitive search product will further intensify its battle with Google.

However, he dismissed any rumours of building a Facebook smartphone stating that it would be "the wrong strategy" for the social media giant.

The Facebook boss spoke as if undeterred by widespread scepticism about the company's future as he suggested he would rather the firm be an underdog and prove outsiders wrong.

"There are tons of people that are super-pessimistic," the BBC reported Zuckerberg saying. "I would personally rather be underestimated. It gives us latitude to go out and make some big bets."

Before Facebook's IPO, Computing questioned the firm's strategy to focus on mobile given the severe challenges it was already experiencing with its desktop advertising model.