Facebook shows strong Q4 growth, all thanks to Reliance Jio Infocomm

The unlimited free data by Reliance Jio Infocomm has helped in contributing to Facebook's strong fourth quarter numbers as India was the social media giant's "strongest growth market” by user base.

The US Company posted fourth quarter revenue of $8.81 billion, which includes $1.35 billion from the Asia region, sharply higher than the $5.84 billion it posted a year ago. Net Profit for the quarter to December came in at $3.57 billion, more than double the $1.56 billion it posted a year back.

Facebook CFO David Wehner, while referring to Reliance Jio’s free data plans, said that the company's growth in Asia was boosted by the free data being offered in India.

"In the fourth quarter, we wanted to call out that we have seen an increase in third-party promotional free data plans in places like India,” Wehner said. Jio's free services, on offer till March 31, have also forced incumbent telcos to slash data prices as well.

"So that (free offer) clearly is having an impact in APAC (Asia-Pacific) and India was our strongest growth market (by user base). So, that would be something that I would say was a little bit more unique this past quarter,” Wehner said.

The second biggest beneficiary according to Smartapp, are video apps such as YouTube, Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Netflix, which together have seen a jump of 336%. The social Internet giant is also expected to ramp-up hiring and is likely to invest more in video content, the company said.