By Jillian D’Onfrou, Business insider
Facebook just announced a big push to monetize its next billion users: It’s opening an ad sales office in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Right now, Facebook has about 120 million active users in Africa. That’s a 20% increase from September 2014, but still only a small percentage of the more than one billion people who live there.
The company has been steadily increasing its African audience thanks in part to the efforts of Internet.org, the Facebook-led non-profit that works with local cellular carriers to make select services — including, of course, Facebook — free or cheaper to use for people in different parts of the world.
Now, as Facebook continues to push its product to those new users, its ad sales team will be in the area finding out the best way to turn those individuals into dollar signs. As of last quarter, international now makes up 52% of the Facebook’s total ad revenue (which is actually down from 2013, when it composed nearly 56%) .
For example, Facebook has created a “missed call” product in India where people can avoid using their data plan by clicking on an ad on Facebook mobile and then having the advertiser pay the data costs of sending them some sort of content, like music or a celebrity message. In Kenya, Facebook worked with Coke to create a mobile-optimized but still visually rich ad campaign that it says increased recall by 18%.
Nunu Ntshingila-Njeke, formerly of the ad agency Ogilvy, will spearhead Facebook’s Africa efforts.
“This new office is a significant milestone for Facebook and our teams want to partner with businesses across the continent,” Facebook’s VP of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) said in a statement about the opening. “Africa is important to Facebook, and this office is a key part of our strategy to expand our investment and presence across EMEA.”
Source: Business insider
