If Facebook's 2011 New Year's resolution was to go mobile, in 2012 the company's edict may focus on the next phase of that development.
Bloomberg reports that the Palo Alto-based social-networking site is dipping its toes into the mobile advertising arena and preparing for an outright swim.
The company is expected to begin mobile advertising by the end of March, which would give Mark Zuckerberg a fresh revenue stream ahead of taking Facebook public next year.
With the move, Facebook would become a direct competitor to both Google and Apple, who have already been duking it out in the mobile advertising arena.
But Facebook could have a leg up on the two Silicon Valley titans. The social network has so much data and so many users that it could, at least in theory, target its ads incredibly specifically.
Facebook is expected to go public by the end of 2012 with an IPO valued at over $100 billion.
