Shares in Facebook fell by 2% last week as it reported its slowest quarterly revenue gain in two years. All the while, their spending has increased as more money has been invested in products like WhatsApp and Instagram.
Despite these declining figures, Facebook remains confident – reporting a rise in active monthly users of 13% since last year. It offers assurances that the increased revenue spend is in line with the forecast expenditure of between 55 and 65%, blaming foreign exchange rates and the strong US dollar for the cut in revenue.
With 87% of users accessing Facebook on smartphones and other mobile devices, Facebook is hoping to increase the revenue it receives from in-app purchasing through Facebook Messenger. They must do so by selling services like stickers and social gaming inside the application.
Juggernauts aren’t big to everyone.
Different people have different perspectives. This inevitably leads to fear. Facebook, for one, can’t help but be afraid about what is happening to them around the world.
In Asia, for example, the number of Facebook users is still growing. There, the majority of their revenue still comes from advertising. eCommerce services are falling behind in the marketplace. And rightfully so.
Asia has a different perspective on their value.
And of course, this has a lot to do with the other messaging apps in Asia such as Line and KakaoTalk.
Only time will tell us what Facebook becomes across the globe. It might very well become something different to each region. It certainly is big enough to do that. The question then becomes “How agile can a big company like Facebook be Internationally?”
This will be fun to watch.