ITV

Category: Social Media

  • Facebook’s Asia-Pacific numbers lesser impacted than other regions in pandemic quarter

    Facebook’s Asia-Pacific numbers lesser impacted than other regions in pandemic quarter

    BENGALURU: As people across most of the globe retreated indoors under the lockdown announced by most of the countries to reduce the growth rate of Covid2019, world economies were badly hit. Officegoers had no other option but to use media to keep themselves occupied as the amount of work-to-do shrank. With the closure of education institutions, theaters and malls and hotels, etc., misplaced suspicion about the safety of newsprint, no new television/film content being produced, news and movies on television, OTT, internet, social media, became the new tools for entertainment and information, for networking and socialising distantly, education, occupying minds, etc.  

    Social media networking major Facebook or FB reported its numbers for the first quarter ended 31 March 2020 (Q1 2020, quarter or period under review). Facebook reported 15.87 per cent lower Q-o-Q numbers for the quarter under review as compared to the previous quarter (quarter ended 31 December 2019, Q4 2019), but 17.64 per cent higher Y-o-Y than the year ago quarter Q1 2019. FB has witnessed Q-o-Q revenue declines in the first quarter earlier – in Q1 2018, revenue declined 7.76 per cent as compared to Q4 2018 and in Q1 2019 it declined 10.86 per cent as compared to Q4 2018. Overall, Facebook numbers have shown an increasing trend, the Covid2019 quarter is just a slightly bigger than the normal bump in its path to growth.

    FB reports revenues from four major geographical regions in the world – the largest in terms of revenue being the US-Canada region, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific (A-Pac) and the Rest of the World or RoW. The US-Canada region contributes about 48 per cent, the Europe region about 24 per cent, APAC region about 18 per cent and RoW about 10 per cent to FB’s revenues. Please refer to the figure below for FB revenue breakup.

    Advertisement is the major revenue stream for FB that contributes to more than 98 per cent to its overall revenues. The figure below shows contribution in terms of percentage of ad revenue to total ad revenue from these geographical regions. As is obvious, the APAC region is the only one that has shown growth in contribution to FB’s ad revenues during Q1 2020 – It contributed 17.56 per cent to FB’s ad revenues in the previous quarter and its contribution to ad revenue increased to 18.56 per cent  in Q1 2020. As a matter of fact, the APAC region has shown only two downward blips in its contribution to ad revenue during 9 quarters (the quarter under review and its preceding 8 quarters). These two blips happened in Q1 2020 and Q4 2018.

    Growth in contribution to revenue from the APAC region has generally been steadier than the other regions. When FB’s revenues have declined Q-o-Q, the decline in revenues from the APACregion has been lower than the other regions during these nine quarters. The APACregion’s total revenue declined 11.13 per cent Q-o-Q in Q1 2020 as compared to declines of 16.45 percent, 17.54 per cent and 17.21 per cent from US-Canada, Europe and RoW regions respectively. Y-o-Y, revenues grew 17.16 percent, 16.55 percent, 21.44 per cent and 15.80 per cent in Q1 2020 from FB’s US-Canada, Europe, APAC and RoW regions, respectively.

    Facebook’s Daily Active Users or DAU grew 4.65 per cent in Q1 2020 to 1.734 billion as compared to 1.657 billion in Q4 2019. The APAC region has a major chunk of humanity, consequently, the company’s largest DAU are from the APACregion, and the number of these APACusers in Q1 2020 has grown 5.77 per cent Q-o-Q. Comparatively, the US-Canada, Europe and RoW regions have seen DAU growth in the quarter under review versus the immediate trailing quarter of 2.63 percent, 3.74 per cent and 4.51 per cent respectively. Please refer to the figure below:

    The US-Canada region has the least DAU  among the four FB regions, however, this region has FB’s highest ARPU or average revenue per person, as well as the highest Family Average Revenue Per Peson or ARPP. Facebook defines a monthly active person (MAP) as a registered and logged-in user of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp (collectively, FB’s "Family" of products) who visited at least one of
    these Family products through a mobile device application or using a web or mobile browser in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement. 

    With drop in revenue, Facebook’s ARPU in Q1 2020 dropped 12.89 per cent Q-o-Q world wide. Q-o-Q FB’s APAC region ARPU declined 6.08 percent. ARPU drops of 13.6 per cent by US-Canada, 13.02 per cent by Europe and 10.43 per cent by RoW also happened in the quarter under review. Please refer to the figure below:

    Excerpts on what the company has to say

    "Our work has always been about helping you stay connected with the people you care about," said FB founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "With people relying on our services more than ever, we're focused on keeping people safe, informed and connected."

    Impact of Covid2019 on Outlook

    On Revenue: Our business has been impacted by the Covid2019 pandemic and, like all companies, we are facing a period of unprecedented uncertainty in our business outlook. We expect our business performance will be impacted by issues beyond our control, including the duration and efficacy of shelter-in-place orders, the effectiveness of economic stimuli around the world, and the fluctuations of currencies relative to the U.S. dollar.

    After the initial steep decrease in advertising revenue in March, we have seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April, where advertising revenue has been approximately flat compared to the same period a year ago, down from the 17 per cent year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2020. The April trends reflect weakness across all of our user geographies as most of our major countries have had some sort of shelter-in-place guidelines in effect.

    On Expenses:We expect to realize operational expense savings in certain areas such as travel, events, and marketing as well as from slower headcount growth in our business functions. However, we plan to continue to invest in product development and to recruit technical talent. In addition, we have committed over $300 million to date in investments to help our broader community during the crisis, which will have an impact on our financial performance this year. As a result, we expect total expenses in 2020 to be between $52-56 billion, down from the prior range of $54-59 billion. While this reflects a moderate reduction in the planned growth rate of total expenses, our overall expense growth in the face of expected revenue weakness will have a negative impact on 2020 operating margins.

    On Capex: Our significant investments in infrastructure over the past four years have served us well during this period of high user engagement. We plan to continue to grow our capex investments to enhance and expand our global infrastructure footprint over the long term. In 2020, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $14-16 billion, down from the prior range of $17-19 billion. This reduction reflects a significant decrease in our construction efforts globally related to shelter-in-place orders. Given the strong engagement growth and related demands on our infrastructure, this year's capex reduction should be viewed as a deferral into 2021 rather than savings.
     

  • Facebook sees dip in ad demand in last 3 weeks of Q1

    Facebook sees dip in ad demand in last 3 weeks of Q1

    MUMBAI: Despite increased engagement due to shelter-in-place directives in many countries, Facebook experienced a significant reduction in the demand for advertising. After the initial steep decrease in advertising revenue in March, Facebook has seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April.

    However, the social media giant has reported $17.74 billion, slightly beating analysts’ expectations for the quarter up by 18 per cent, and net income of $4.9 billion (or earnings per share of $1.71). Advertising revenue stood at $17.44 bn.

    Daily active users (DAUs) on the social media platform were 1.73 billion on average for March 2020, an increase of 11 per cent year-over-year. And monthly active users (MAUs) reached 2.60 billion as of March 31, 2020, an increase of 10 per cent year-over-year.

    “Our community metrics, including Facebook DAUs and MAUs and Family MAP and DAP, reflect increased engagement as people around the world sheltered in place and used our products to connect with the people and organizations they care about. We expect that we will lose at least some of this increased engagement when various shelter-in-place restrictions are relaxed in the future,” the company stated in a statement.

    Facebook also witnessed a related decline in the pricing of its ads, over the last three weeks of the first quarter of 2020. However, due to the increasing uncertainty in its business outlook, Facebook has not provided any specific revenue guidance for the second quarter or full-year 2020.

    “After the initial steep decrease in advertising revenue in March, we have seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April, where advertising revenue has been approximately flat compared to the same period a year ago, down from the 17 per cent year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2020. The April trends reflect weakness across all of our user geographies as most of our major countries have had some sort of shelter-in-place guidelines in effect,” it added.

    It expects to realize operational expense savings in certain areas such as travel, events, and marketing as well as from slower headcount growth in the business functions. But it also mentioned that the company plans to continue to invest in product development and to recruit technical talent.

    “We plan to continue to grow our capex investments to enhance and expand our global infrastructure footprint over the long term. In 2020, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $14-16 billion, down from the prior range of $17-19 billion. This reduction reflects a significant decrease in our construction efforts globally related to shelter-in-place orders,” it added.

  • Zuckerberg promises better shopping experience through JioMart-WhatsApp

    Zuckerberg promises better shopping experience through JioMart-WhatsApp

    MUMBAI: It seems Facebook has great ambition for e-commerce and small business in India. While speculations have been rife on the scope of the social media giant’s investment in Mukesh Ambani’s Jio, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg keeps emphasising on small businesses and a better shopping experience.

    “One aspect of online commerce I want to mention is the partnership we just announced with Jio Platforms in India. The largest Facebook and WhatsApp communities in the world are in India, and we think there's an especially important opportunity to serve small businesses and enable commerce there over the long term. By bringing together JioMart, which is Jio's small business initiative to connect millions of shops across India, with WhatsApp, we think that we’re going to be able to create a much better shopping experience. There's a lot more we can do here and I'm looking forward to making progress with the team at Jio,” he commented in an earnings call after announcing q1 results.

    He also mentioned that there are millions of small businesses and shops across India and they want to try to help them get on a single network to communicate through Whatsapp and make online payment through WhatsApp. The Facebook CEO added that it is a great example of how they can wire up and help small businesses in the country where they have the largest WhatsApp community.

    “But certainly all the products and technology that we’re building to enable that partnership are going to be things we’re going to want to do around the world,” he added.

    Recently, Facebook made an investment of Rs 43,574 crore into Jio Platforms, translating into a 9.99 per cent equity stake in it on a fully diluted basis. Now, along with a strong local ally, it becomes one of the largest contenders in the e-commerce battle with Amazon and Flipkart. While Jio disrupted the telecom industry, it is unsure yet as to how the JioMart- Whatsapp force will unravel. 

  • ShareChat users saying ‘Bhag Corona’

    ShareChat users saying ‘Bhag Corona’

    MUMBAI: While the nation is struggling to cope up with Covid19 crisis, ShareChat users have got a unique way to take revenge on the Corona Virus. The game, developed by two young college students at XLRI Jamshedpur, Akram Tariq Khan and Anushree Warade is trending on the platform from past 10 days. 

    The game, with visual of prime minister Narendra Modi at the bottom, shooting at Corona Virus with droplets of hand sanitisers. With 'Go corona, corona go,' chant as the theme music, the game intends to create awareness around Covid19. Every time the game ends with advice on how to fight against Coronavirus with messages like ‘Stay home’, ‘Wear masks’, ‘Wash your hands’ etc.

    Since the time the game has gone live on ShareChat, it is trending on the platform and has already generated four million unique page views. The users have played the game almost a million times, with an average of 3.2 times of gameplay per user. The average score has been 5.8 per gameplay.

    Considering, people are disappointed, frustrated and are anxious with this lockdown due to Corona Virus scare, Bhag Corona definitely has brought in a respite for the ShareChat users and evolved as a stress buster for them. ShareChat users have discovered a new way to take on Corona while the game subtly spread awareness on the virus.

  • Facebook ad biz weakening despite upsurge in users

    Facebook ad biz weakening despite upsurge in users

    MUMBAI: Streaming services, social media services and apps are emerging as the unwitting beneficiaries of an unprecedented situation which has forced people to stay at their homes. The usage of Facebook has gone up in many of the countries hit hardest by the novel coronavirus. Total messaging has increased more than 50 per cent over the last month. Moreover, in places hit hardest by the virus, voice and video calling have more than doubled on Messenger and WhatsApp. Despite the spike in usage, however, Facebook's ad business seems to be weakening.

    Facebook shared in its blog post that much of the increased traffic is happening on its messaging services, but it has also seen more people using its feed and stories to get updates from family and friends. 

    “At the same time, our business is being adversely affected like so many others around the world. We don’t monetise many of the services where we’re seeing increased engagement, and we’ve seen a weakening in our ads business in countries taking aggressive actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Facebook stated.

    According to Cowen & Co analysts' estimate, the two internet giants, Facebook and Google, together, could lose more than $44 billion in worldwide ad revenue. Facebook ad revenue for the year is expected to slide by $15.7 billion to reach $67.8 billion for the year. 

    “During this emergency, we’re doing everything we can to keep our apps fast, stable and reliable. Our services were built to withstand spikes during events such as the Olympics or on New Year’s Eve. However, those happen infrequently, and we have plenty of time to prepare for them. The usage growth from COVID-19 is unprecedented across the industry, and we are experiencing new records in usage almost every day,” it added further. 

    The social media giant also noted that maintaining stability throughout these spikes in usage is more challenging than usual as now most of the employees are working from home. However, it has mentioned that the team is working to keep the apps running smoothly while also prioritising features such as COVID-19 Information Center on Facebook as well as the World Health Organization’s Health Alert on WhatsApp.  To help alleviate potential network congestion, Facebook is temporarily reducing bit rates for videos on Facebook and Instagram in certain regions. 

  • Facebook announces call for applications from non-profit organisations for its CSR grant

    Facebook announces call for applications from non-profit organisations for its CSR grant

    MUMBAI: Facebook India today announced a call for applications for its CSR initiative, Facebook Pragati – powered by N/Core (The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation). The initiative will incubate and accelerate, early stage women led non-profits that are working in the areas of women entrepreneurship and to drive awareness and adoption of technology among women in India. This is a part of the Corporate Social responsibility mandate by the Government, where Facebook will work in collaboration with N/Core. Facebook Pragati will award four grants of up to 50 lakhs for each non-profit to scale their work. 

    Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India said, “Facebook is an ally for accelerating India’s growth and promoting inclusion is one of our key priorities. An important enabler for that is financial independence. The relative number of businesses in India run by women entrepreneurs is still very low. We are committed to helping women entrepreneurs succeed through greater access to digital platforms, funds and mentorship. Our CSR focus with Facebook Pragati will be to empower women to set-up and grow their businesses, and contribute to making the country economically and socially stronger. ”

    “N/Core believes in the massive potential of women entrepreneurs to drive innovation, create jobs, unlock the power of technology, and fuel India’s economic growth. We are excited to partner with Facebook in launching Pragati and taking a significant step towards bridging the deficit for providing essential support for women entrepreneurs.” added Akshay Soni, Managing Director, N/Core Accelerator 

    Each of the non-profits selected for Facebook Pragati initiative will get access to:

    Direct Grant: as resources to build an organization and scale operations for a greater impact. Each non-profit selected will receive a grant of upto INR 50Lac.
    Mentorship:  by an N/Core Partner – Kamakshi Rao (Partner, Ankur Capital); K R Lakshminaraya (Chief Endowment Officer of Azim Premji Foundation) and S K Jain (Co-founder, WestBridge Capital) amongst others. The startups will also receive hands-on support in areas like technology, marketing and human resources from renowned experts and industry leaders including Facebook’s leadership team and employee volunteers 
    Fund-raising: Along with improving the fundraising strategy of the nonprofits through techniques including targeting and storytelling, the program will also ensure face to face meetings with funders to enable the nonprofits to utilise and internalise the learnings, leading to greater sustainability. 
    Organisational capacity building: the program will work on building second tier capacity within the nonprofits, with a series of functional mentors across marketing, HR and technology. Apart from creating sustainability, this will also let the founder of organisation to  spend time on strategic growth, resulting in scaling up faster.

    Who can apply?

    Nonprofits that are less than 3 years old and have at least one woman founder
     Should be able to demonstrate a viable business plan, working in the space of women entrepreneurship and promoting use of technology in India. 

  • Facebook Announces New Communications Head for India

    Facebook Announces New Communications Head for India

    March: Facebook today announced that it has recruited a new communications head to lead its growing corporate communications and public relations mandate in India. Bipasha Chakrabarti will take on the role of Communications Director at Facebook India, and will be a part of the India leadership team, reporting to Ajit Mohan.

    Bipasha comes with eighteen years of experience working with leading tech brands and PR agencies. In her last assignment as the Head of Corporate Communications at Cisco India and SAARC, she not only led the entire gamut of communications, including analyst, technology, and corporate communications, but also managed leadership and executive communications for the office of APJC President. Prior to Cisco, Bipasha was with Sun Microsystems. As part of her new role, she will lead the communications charter for both Facebook and Instagram in India.

    The announcement comes just a month after Facebook announced the hiring of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director at Facebook India to drive the company’s consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps. Just a year ago, Facebook had also announced a new leadership structure in India bringing the company’s functions under Ajit Mohan, reporting directly to its headquarters in Menlo Park.

    Said Ajit Mohan, VP and MD of Facebook India, “Communications is a critical function for us as we continue to build Facebook’s story in India. We are grateful for the trust that our users, advertisers, partners, and the government have placed in us, and are committed to communicating openly and transparently. Bipasha is among the most seasoned communication professionals in the country and I am very excited to have her join us and lead this charter.”

    Over the course of last year, Facebook has spearheaded several India-focused initiatives with a strong focus on fueling entrepreneurship, boosting digital skilling, and breaking the gender imbalance on the Internet.

    In the last few months, Facebook has recruited for key roles across multiple functions such as Marketing, Sales, Partnerships, and Policy. Consistent with the new organization structure, several of these roles have been spread across the Facebook family of apps.

  • Filmfare Awards to simulcast on Facebook globally

    Filmfare Awards to simulcast on Facebook globally

    MUMBAI: Worldwide Media, India’s leading lifestyle and entertainment content company, has entered into a strategic partnership with Facebook for its iconic Filmfare Awards Franchise. The year-long partnership will provide exclusive non-linear digital simulcast partnership to the entire Filmfare awards franchise including Filmfare Hindi, Filmfare Marathi, Filmfare South, Filmfare Punjabi and Filmfare Glamour and Style Awards in 2020.

    Kickstarting the association with 65th Amazon Filmfare Awards, the awards show will simulcast on February 16 at 9.00pm on Filmfare’s official Facebook page, in addition to red carpet highlights, backstage footage, special moments and best of Filmfare archive content, that will be exclusively available digitally on Facebook and Instagram. 

    Ensuring enhanced reach and innovative content, 65-year old iconic Bollywood awards, will now harness the global reach of social media. Speaking about its partnership with Facebook, Worldwide Media CEO Deepak Lamba said, “Filmfare Awards has for a while now been clear market leader in audience reach and engagement driven by our TV coverage, leveraging our large digital and social platforms, and via extensive news reportage by the TOI group. We are also excited because we will leverage the various FB tools to drive like-minded communities of Bollywood buffs to discuss, debate and enjoy topics and content of similar interest levels. It will enable them to talk about the world of movies, favourite stars and artists all year around, centered around exciting content that the Filmfare team creates.” 

    “Social media is revolutionizing the way audiences discover, consume and share entertainment content. We have seen people form some of the most vibrant global communities around their favorite movies and stars on Facebook and Instagram. We are excited to partner with Filmfare to bring exclusive and engaging videos, photos and more for people on our platforms.” added Facebook India director and head of partnerships Manish Chopra.

    As part of #FilmfareOnFB this year, Filmfare has launched its official Facebook group “All Things Filmfare'', where fans from around the world can relive iconic moments of the Filmfare legacy and can discuss their favorite Filmfare moments. Fans can also join in on the #FilmfareOnFB buzz. This year, over 30 creators will also join in the pre-Filmfare anticipation, talking about their favorite Filmfare moments, of which five creators will get to be on the Filmfare Red Carpet and backstage, to create exclusive content for Facebook and Instagram.

  • Hike adds more cheer to Valentine’s Day; gives love back to users!

    Hike adds more cheer to Valentine’s Day; gives love back to users!

    MUMBAI:  As Valentine’s Week is upon us, Hike adds to the celebration of love with a slew of newly launched love stickers and Valentine’s Day surprises for top 2,000 users. As a platform dedicated to enabling shared online experiences between friends and closed one, Hike also shared that over 1 billion love stickers were exchanged by Hike users in 2019. 

    As part of the Valentine's Day celebration, Hike has sent gift vouchers to its top 2,000 users, with curated options to pick thoughtful gifts for their significant others. Hike will be delivering the chosen gifts early in the day by 14th February on behalf of the top Hiker as a surprise and a token of love to their significant other. 

    Operating at the intersection of Art and AI, Hike is known for its locally relevant, highly relatable, fun and quirky stickers. With over 1 billion love stickers exchanged in 2019 and over 100 million love stickers exchanged in January 2020 alone, love stickers are one of the most popular sticker categories from Hike’s collection. Hike offers close to 2000 love stickers to enable the expression of your feeling this Valentine’s including individual options for Rose Day, Propose Day, Chocolate Day, Teddy Day, Promise Day, Hug Day, Kiss Day. Marking the celebration of love, Hike also shared that with the love stickers collection the most popular are the ‘I Love You’ stickers, with over 104 million of these exchanged in 2019 and over 11 million  of ‘I Love You’ stickers shared in January 2020. 

    As one of the only players leveraging AI & ML for local languages at a mass scale, Hike had also recently introduced HikeMoji to its users, an avatar that’s their funnest most expressive virtual self. Tailored to offer a local flavor, HikeMoji allows users to choose from 1000+ components integrating hyperlocal clothing, hairstyles, accessories as well as access to 100+ exclusive HikeMoji Stickers. Keeping up with the love in the air, new HikeMoji DPs are also added for users to express their Valentine’s state of mind. 

    Hike’s vision is to build a new social future with joyful products that are built around the consumers & not the other way around. Creating radically unique products at the intersection of Art, AI, Product, Design & Engineering, Hike is all set to take the user experience to the next level in 2020. Hike recently teased its upcoming social product, HikeLand aiming to transform shared online experiences. 

  • Hike launches exclusive Love Aaj Kal HikeMoji Stickers and HikeMoji looks

    Hike launches exclusive Love Aaj Kal HikeMoji Stickers and HikeMoji looks

    MUMBAI:  As the excitement around B-town’s It-pair- Sara & Kartik’s latest movie Love Aaj Kal, a Window Seat Films & Maddock Films production, continues to rise, fans can now enjoy their favorite stars in a cool new avatar with HikeMoji. HikeMoji, which is a way for users to enjoy their funnest most expressive self, will bring to life exclusive avatars of Sara and Kartik. In addition to that, Hike users will also get access to quirky and relatable Love Aaj Kal HikeMoji Stickers and animated stickers, letting them express their inner Zoe and Veer. 

    The collaboration captures the essence of the new-age romance that Love Aaj Kal represents, letting you express the same emotions & recreate these experiences with HikeMoji. Through this association, Hike users will receive HikeMoji options inspired by Kartik & Sara’s characters – Veer & Zoe from Love Aaj Kal. Users can further add these HikeMoji looks to their display pictures. Additionally, Hikers will also receive exclusive animated stickers playing on the dialogues and characters from the movie, designed to reflect the joy and energy of Love Aaj Kal, releasing worldwide, 14th February 2020. 

    As one of the only players leveraging AI & ML for local languages at a mass scale, Hike had recently introduced HikeMoji to its users. Tailored to offer a local flavor, HikeMoji allows users to choose from 1000+ components integrating hyperlocal clothing, hairstyles, accessories as well as access to 100+ exclusive HikeMoji Stickers.

    Hike’s vision is to build a new social future with joyful products that are built around the consumers & not the other way around. Creating radically unique products at the intersection of Art, AI, Product, Design & Engineering, Hike is all set to take the user experience to the next level in 2020. Hike recently teased its upcoming social product, HikeLand aiming to transform shared online experiences. 

    Hike users can enjoy the all-new Love Aaj Kal HikeMoji Stickers and animated stickers from 7th February 2020 onwards. Download today on Google Play & App Store.