iWorld
FB Q4 2018 earnings saw mobile contribute 93% to ad rev
MUMBAI: Last year saw Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant Facebook entangled in a number of controversies, especially its privacy policies with the biggest being the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Despite all the negative press throughout the year, the FAANG company has reported strong financial gain in Q4 beating revenue and earnings per share estimations. Daily active users on the social media platform reached 1.52 billion led by growth in India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Facebook reported 16.91 billion revenue against the estimate of 16.39 billion and $2.38 EPS against $2.18 consensus estimate. The key contributor to revenue definitely remains advertising with $16.64 billion. As the company reported, the year-on-year growth for total revenue as well as ad revenue was 30 per cent. North America, the domestic market of the platform alone brought in $8.25 billion. Notably, the ad revenue growth was strongest at 34 per cent in Asia-Pacific region.
The number of active users was also slightly higher than the expectations. Facebook reported 2.32 billion monthly active users and 1.52 billion daily active users with a 9 per cent year-on-year growth. Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 93 per cent of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018, up from approximately 89 per cent of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017. The platform now has over 7 million active users across all its services.
“In Q4, the average price per ad decreased 2 per cent and the number of ad impressions served on our services increased 34 per cent. Impression growth was primarily driven by ads on Instagram – including both feed & stories – as well as Facebook mobile news feed. The year-over-year decline in average price per ad reflects an ongoing mix shift towards product surfaces and geographies that monetise at lower rates,” Facebook CFO David Wehner said in a statement.
Recently, Facebook has started focusing highly on stories across all its properties. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that 2 million advertisers are using stories to reach customers across their family of apps. In the last quarter, the company launched ads in messenger stories too.
As per the company presentation, daily active user grew in every region including in Europe. While monthly active users stayed flat in North America, it grew in every other region especially in Asia Pacific. The presentation says average revenue per user (ARPU) also grew to $7.37 billion from $6.09 billion in the third quarter.
The numbers clearly that indicate advertisers have not lost interest in the social media engine despite all the data privacy scandals. Even backlash from governments across the world didn't affect its value much for advertisers.
"Our community and business continue to grow," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. "We've fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we're investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect."
With an attempt to focus more on videos, Facebook Watch entered global markets. Zuckerberg expects 2019 to be the year where Watch becomes more mainstream. “There are now 400 million people who use it every month, and people spend on average over 20 minutes on Watch daily. This means we're finding ways for video to grow outside of news feed so it doesn't displace the social interactions that people primarily come to our services for,” he added.
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
