BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Facebook on Tuesday launched a new advertising system that allows companies to create their own pages and target ads based on what users buy and do online, media reported.

    For the first time, the social network gives advertisers the ability to launch dedicated pages on the site that will let users identify themselves as fans of a product.

    Advertisers also will be able to show users their pitches in the guise of a friend's endorsement. For example, if the friend just booked a vacation on an online travel agency, the company will be able to display the friend's photo to attract the user to buy flights and hotel stays.

    "What we're building here is a massive network of real world connections through which people can share information," Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told a gathering of advertising and media executives in New York.

    The privately held company has signed on several dozen partners for the system, including Coca-Cola, Blockbuster, Verizon, Travelocity, and Conde Nast.

    Zuckerberg was unapologetic when asked whether the influx of advertising could put off users who flocked to the site as a fun way to interact with friends, saying "It's an ad-supported business."

    Social-networking sites like Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace have been trying to find the best way to profit from the trove of personal data their users put on profile pages, and Facebook's walls to protect the users' privacy, on which the company has long prided itself, have gradually lowered.

    A feature allowing users to more easily track changes their friends make to profiles backfired when many users denounced it as stalking and threatened protests and boycotts. Facebook had to quickly apologize and agree to let users turn off the feature so that others can't easily see what they do.

    (Agencies)