Facebook is handily winning the battle of social networks in south Asia. According to a new study by Jana, Facebook is the social network of choice in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, toppling Twitter, Google Plus, and Zing. In nearly every country, more than 70 percent of respondents said they use Facebook more than any other social media site.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Although Facebook’s overall revenue took a hit from the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year, the company earned $1.25 billion in ad revenue in the first quarter of 2013 — 30 percent of which came from mobile ads. Total revenue hit $1.46 billion, a 38 percent increase from the first quarter of 2012.
If you looked at Facebook’s introduction of stickers for messaging (snuck into the latest iOS update) and wondered why they’re on your phone, you’re probably not the target demographic. Stickers, which are essentially supersized emoticons, have been a popular feature in Asian messaging applications such as Line and KakaoTalk. Not only do people use stickers, they pay for them. Stickers have been a major revenue source for Line, and it appears that Facebook may try to enter that market.
Mobile payment platform Bango is about to process a £6.5 million ($10.2 million) transaction of its own after announcing the closure of an investment round Friday featuring new and existing investors.
As evidenced by Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s trip to Russia, Facebook is doing all it can to expand its global reach. According to statistics from social media database Socialbakers, the site is growing in popularity in the Asian island nation of Indonesia, but are those new members real?
Though Facebook is still frozen out of China, there is still major growth potential throughout Asia. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is in Japan now speaking about the social network’s plans to grow in the region that already has 255 million users.
When Facebook announced plans to go public, two of the most prominent concerns raised about the social network were its ability to monetize mobile and its prospects for growth in Asia. The deal it reached with Myriad Group, announced Wednesday, took aim at both of those concerns.
Facebook hopes to grow its social influence in Asia, as the company recently announced that it invested in the Asia Pacific Gateway — a 6,214-mile underwater internet cable from Malaysia to Japan, with cables branching off to other countries.
There’s been talk lately about Facebook’s growth potential among international markets. Much of this will depend on if and when the social network determines how to sell things on mobile, and if it can set up a seamless, user-friendly payment platform.
Asia continues to represent the largest growth opportunity for Facebook
