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Facebook has been slow to enter the mobile commerce game, though it has been long expected to expand its platform into an app store and other services. Now the social networking giant is said to be bringing its digital currency, Credits, to mobile browsers, allowing developers to sell content and other items on smartphones and tablets. This could make Facebook an alternative pull on mobile users' spending on virtual goods and content, reducing the takings of Google and Apple.

Like Apple and others, Facebook could then take a 30% cut of revenues generated within its apps, or paid-for via Credits. That, in turn, would be another channel reducing the proportion of mobile transaction fees that go to Apple or Google - Android Market's hold over apps has already been diluted by the launch of Amazon's alternative shopfront.

Facebook is one of the most popular mobile apps on the iPhone and Android, but it currently makes no purchasing revenue directly from that presence. On PCs, users can buy virtual items within Facebook apps such as FarmVille, and the social firm gets a cut - but that does not currently happen on Android or iOS. Facebook started testing Credits in 2009, and earlier this year, made it mandatory for the sale of virtual goods in all apps on its site.

The rise of HTML5 browsers on mobile devices will radically shift the balance of power in digital commerce. They will make it easier for developers to create a user friendly purchasing experience in the browser, rather than requiring a dedicated app, which has to work within the processes of an app store, and deliver a fee to the owner of that store.

The impact of HTML5 is already being seen on iOS since Apple barred content providers from providing a direct link from an app to an external ebookstore. That was designed to stop vendors bypassing the 30% fee, but companies like Kobo and the UK Financial Times are, instead, removing the purchasing buttons, and creating HTML5 services instead. Kobo said its forthcoming web app will have even more functionality than its native app. In HTML5, users go to a dedicated web address and can then place a direct link to the service on their homescreens.

Now Facebook is asking select developers to build HTML5 versions of their apps to support full functionality and rich media, even without downloading.

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