Facebook beats expectations in the last three months with the number of users up 14 percent to $1.5 billion. Revenues were up 40 percent to $4.5 billion and profits were up 11 percent to just over $890 million.
Facebook is also the latest to launch a news app following similar developments by Google, Apple and Twitter. It all gave Facebook a nice lift in the market with its stock up a third so far this year.
There is a crucial missing piece in its global expansion though: and that is China.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg has long courted China, who even asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to give his new baby a Mandarin name when the Chinese leader was in the U.S. last month.
Most western social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are still blocked in China, but even if they were suddenly allowed in, it might be too late.
Tencent, the runaway leader of Chinese social media, has a total value of more than $180 billion and its users are growing at around 40 percent a year. It helps explain why China is forbidden fruit for social media firms right now.
For more on Facebook and China’s social media market, CCTV America’s Michelle Makori spoke to Blake Cahill, Global Head of Digital and Social Marketing at Royal Philips.
Follow Blake Cahill on Twitter @bcahill
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