Facebook continues to grow in Asia amid ban on Free Basics in India.
Facebook Inc. has been successful in increasing it user base in Asia at a relatively faster pace in contrast to other regions across the globe as per the company’s executive. This indicates that the recent controversy that took place in India regarding the company’s Free Basics program is not hampering the company’s image and they are successful in expanding their services in the region.
The Vice President of Facebook, Dan Neary for the Asia Pacific region told the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview that some of the 540 million of the social media giant’s 1.59 billion monthly active users are in the Asian region as per a consensus done in December. This has increased from 449 million per annum.
The company is adding users in Asia at a 20% rate annually in contrast to the global rate of 14% he stated.
“The potential is greater in Asia-Pacific than it is in any other region because we’ve got two thirds of the world population, and it’s all mobile,” Mr. Neary explained.
Back in February less than two weeks ago when the company reported more than $1 billion in terms of its quarterly revenues for the first time in its history, the company was thrown a ruling by the telecommunication’s regulators in India where its Free Basics service was banned in region. The idea behind this service was to bring the masses online.
This service is being consumed by several countries across the globe which enables the users to browse through certain websites without the need of paying for mobile data. The data is then subsidized by the wireless network carriers in India like Reliance Communications Ltd. However, the regulators are of the view that the initiative disrupts the paradigms of net neutrality which demands all traffic on the Internet to be treated equally.
Mark Zuckerberg, the Chief Executive Officer of the company mentioned in October that India has more than 130 million Facebook users. This is said to be the second largest population after the United States . on the other hand, Twitter boast of 142 million users in India.
“It was disappointing that Free Basics didn’t get the ruling that we had hoped,” Mr. Neary mentioned. However, the company will continue its efforts to offer Internet access across the globe.
According to the social media behemoth, as of this month, they have 3 million active advertisers across the globe. This is a 50% annual increase where South east Asia is the region were advertisers are growing at the fastest pace.
However, the company might find it difficult to increase monetization in Asia whatsoever. During the fourth trimester, FB claimed that it made earning of $13.4 on an average per individual in Canada and United States however in Asia Pacific the average revenue per person was $1.59.
Mr. Neary stated that the revenue is increasing in Asia at a rate of 25% since enterprises and brands have started to understand the power of Facebook. The company is looking at long term goal where Asia is a lucrative market to tap on.
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