Data price hikes limited Facebook user growth in India, says Meta

Increase in data rates in India limited the user growth of Meta (formerly Facebook) in the December 2021 quarter, the social media major said.

Telecom companies Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio had increased their mobile service rates in the range of 18 to 25 per cent in the December quarter.

The profit of Meta declined by 8 per cent to USD 10.28 billion in the December 2021 quarter, from USD 11.21 billion in the same period a year ago.

"Facebook user growth was impacted by a few headwinds in the fourth quarter. In Asia-Pacific and Rest of World, we believe Covid resurgences during prior periods pulled forward user growth. User growth in India was also limited by an increase in data package pricing.

"In addition to these factors, we believe competitive services are negatively impacting growth, particularly with younger audiences," Meta's Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner said during an earnings call.

Its monthly active users (MAUs), however, grew 4 per cent on an annual basis to 2.91 billion, while daily active users (DAUs) increased 5 per cent to 1.93 billion, as of December 31, 2021.

For its family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp etc, monthly active people base increased by 9 per cent y-o-y to 3.59 billion and daily active people base rose 8 per cent on an average to 2.82 billion.

The total revenue of Meta jumped by 20 per cent to USD 33.67 billion during the quarter, from USD 28 billion in the same period of 2020.

For the year ended December 31, Meta's net profit increased by 35 per cent to USD 39.37 billion, compared to USD 29.15 billion in 2020.

Total revenue climbed 37 per cent to USD 117.92 billion for the year 2021 from USD 85.96 billion in 2020.