Mr Trump, take note! India’s Ambani boosts business for Zuckerberg in your protectionist US
NEW DELHI: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just sent a large-hearted thank you to Mukesh Ambani. And if you read this, do send a message to protectionist US President Donald Trump to take note.
Ambani’s Reliance Jio along with India’s big digital boom helped the US-based social network giant Facebook report a 128 per cent rise in net profit at $3.57 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, against $1.56 billion reported for the corresponding quarter last year.
Facebook announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 on February 1.
Media reports said the free data offer rolled out by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm has contributed significantly to Facebook’s strong fourth quarter numbers, making India the social media giant’s ‘strongest’ growth market by user base.
Facebook’s topline surged 51 per cent to $8.81 billion in the fourth quarter of FY2016 from $5.84 billion in the same quarter of last financial year. The rise in topline includes $1.35 billion revenue from the Asian region.
Reliance Jio launched commercial operations on September 5, 2016 in India.
Speaking at its earnings call, Facebook CFO David Wehner said the company’s growth in Asia was boosted by the free data offering in India.
“In the fourth quarter, wanted to call out that we have seen an increase in third-party promotional free data plans in places like India,” Wehner said.
He was referring to the free data being offered by new telecom entrant Jio, which entered the market early September and does not charge for its voice and data services in a bid to attract users.
On a year-to-date basis, the share price of Facebook advanced nearly 13 per cent to $130.84 till February 2, 2017.
Facebook has nearly 1.9 billion users with more than 1.2 billion logging on to its platform every day. Of these, 1.1 billion used mobile devices to access Facebook on a daily basis.
India accounts for over 160 million users, the second highest after Facebook’s home ground. Mobile advertising revenue of the company grew 53 per cent on a year-on-year basis to $8.6 billion against $5.6 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
Ambani’s Reliance Jio along with India’s big digital boom helped the US-based social network giant Facebook report a 128 per cent rise in net profit at $3.57 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, against $1.56 billion reported for the corresponding quarter last year.
Facebook announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 on February 1.
Media reports said the free data offer rolled out by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm has contributed significantly to Facebook’s strong fourth quarter numbers, making India the social media giant’s ‘strongest’ growth market by user base.
Facebook’s topline surged 51 per cent to $8.81 billion in the fourth quarter of FY2016 from $5.84 billion in the same quarter of last financial year. The rise in topline includes $1.35 billion revenue from the Asian region.
Reliance Jio launched commercial operations on September 5, 2016 in India.
Speaking at its earnings call, Facebook CFO David Wehner said the company’s growth in Asia was boosted by the free data offering in India.
“In the fourth quarter, wanted to call out that we have seen an increase in third-party promotional free data plans in places like India,” Wehner said.
He was referring to the free data being offered by new telecom entrant Jio, which entered the market early September and does not charge for its voice and data services in a bid to attract users.
On a year-to-date basis, the share price of Facebook advanced nearly 13 per cent to $130.84 till February 2, 2017.
Facebook has nearly 1.9 billion users with more than 1.2 billion logging on to its platform every day. Of these, 1.1 billion used mobile devices to access Facebook on a daily basis.
India accounts for over 160 million users, the second highest after Facebook’s home ground. Mobile advertising revenue of the company grew 53 per cent on a year-on-year basis to $8.6 billion against $5.6 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
