Zuckerberg tries to ease Facebook investors’ worries with mobile plans

Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg soothed investors Tuesday in his first major public appearance since the No. 1 social network’s rocky May IPO, breathing life into its struggling shares after hinting at new growth areas from mobile to search.

The 28-year-old co-founder looked confident in a gray T-shirt and jeans, asking Wall Street to be patient as the company developed new products, addressing issues such as employee morale, and dashing rumors Facebook may build a smartphone. Zuckerberg was speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

The chief executive, who has himself lost billions of dollars on paper since Facebook’s market debut, admitted to disappointment about his company’s crumbling share price, but argued Wall Street has yet to grasp the full potential of its fledgling mobile business.

“One of the main things that I think is misunderstood right now is how fundamentally good it is on a bunch of different levels,” he said. “I mean the first, is there are more users obviously, the second is that per person who’s using Facebook on mobile, there’s more engagement and they’re spending more time, and then the third is that per amount of time that people spend on mobile we think we’re going to make a lot more money than we do on desktop too.”

His delivery helped drive Facebook shares up more than three percent after hours to above $20, building on a 3.3 percent gain in regular trade on Tuesday.

While declining to offer details, Zuckerberg hinted that the company was “halfway through” a cycle to “retool” and offer new advertising products.

Zuckerberg again quashed a years-long rumor that Facebook is wading into the hardware business and developing a branded phone.

Building a smartphone would be “clearly the wrong strategy for us,” Zuckerberg said.

He conceded that the company’s downward spiraling stock was not helping staff morale, but stressed he still thought it was a good time to join the company and “double down.”    

“It’s not like this is the first up and down that we’ve ever had,” he told hundreds of attendees at the conference. “I would rather be in the cycle where people underestimate us.”

Facebook became the first U.S. company to debut on stock markets with a value of more than $100 billion. But it has since lost more than half of its capitalization as investors fret about slowing growth.

Shares in the company ended Tuesday at $19.43, well off their $38 debut price. The stock crept above $20 in extended trade on Tuesday