Reuters: Technology News: Facebook ad products director to join online-payment firm Square

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Facebook ad products director to join online-payment firm Square Jun 27th 2013, 18:17 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Facebook admits year-long data breach exposed 6 million users Fri, Jun 21 2013 Batteries hold key to wearable device revolution Mon, Jun 17 2013 Web companies begin releasing surveillance information after U.S. deal Sat, Jun 15 2013 Internet giants deny granting government 'direct access' to servers Thu, Jun 6 2013 Facebook pares ad options, simplifies marketing tools Thu, Jun 6 2013 Analysis & Opinion Counterparties: The unbearable lightness of silicon beings The road to smart technology Related Topics Tech » iPad » Facebook » The Facebook logo is pictured at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California January 29, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith By Alexei Oreskovic and Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Jun 27, 2013 2:17pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's director of advertising products has been hired by Square in a significant coup for the young online-payments company. Gokul Rajaram starts work at the San Francisco-based company next week as lead product developer, overseeing Square Register, the firm's point-of-sale product for retailers, Square said on Thursday. The product allows retailers to use an Apple iPad computer tablet as a cash register. Rajaram will also work on other products, Square said. Rajaram oversaw the development of products for Facebook's advertising business, which accounts for about 85 percent of the social networking company's revenue. Facebook has been under pressure to prove the effectiveness and long-term potential of its advertising services, as its stock remains far below the $38-a-share price of its May 2012 initial public offering. With consumers increasingly accessing Facebook on smartphones, Facebook has transformed its ad business over the past year, placing greater emphasis on mobile ads that appear directly in users' newsfeeds. Mike Hudack, who worked on Rajaram's team and was focused on measuring the effectiveness of Facebook's ads, replaces Rajaram as head of product management for Facebook Ads and Pages. "Gokul has played a valuable part in building our advertising business. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors," Facebook said in a statement. Shares of Facebook were up 2.2 percent at $24.70 in afternoon trading. Square, one of Silicon Valley's most closely watched private companies, has made several high-profile hires in recent months as it attempts to live up to a lofty $3.25 billion valuation. It recently released a slew of new hardware and software, including a card reader stand and an e-commerce website. Retailers are central to Square's growth plans. Customers using iPads make up nearly half the $15 billion in payments that Square says it processes on an annualized basis. Rajaram joined Facebook in 2010, when the world's largest social networking company acquired his startup firm, Chai Labs. Preceding that, he was a product management director for ad services at Google Inc. (Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bernadette Baum) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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