BENGALURU: Facebook reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Wednesday as it pushed further into video advertising, showing no sign of financial damage from the controversy over how Russia used the social network in an attempt to sway voters in the 2016 US election.
The company’s shares, which hit a record earlier in the day, initially rose in after-hours trading, but later fell into negative territory. They have gained almost 60 percent this year.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg condemned Russia’s attempts to influence last year’s election through Facebook posts designed to sow division, and repeated his pledge to ramp up spending significantly to increase the social network’s security, something he said on Wednesday would affect profits.
“What they did is wrong, and we are not going to stand for it,” Zuckerberg said of the Russians, on a conference call with analysts.
Facebook is at the center of a political storm in the US for the ways it handles paid political ads and allows the spread of false news stories. US lawmakers have threatened tougher regulation and fired questions at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch in hearings this week.
Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 US political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years. Russia denies any meddling.
Facebook’s total advertising revenue rose 49 percent in the third quarter to $10.14 billion, about 88 percent of which came from mobile ads.
Analysts on average had expected total ad revenue of $9.71 billion, according to data and analytics firm FactSet.
Facebook in the third quarter gave advertisers for the first time the ability to run ads in standalone videos, outside the Facebook News Feed, and the company is seeing good early results, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told analysts on a conference call.
“Video is exploding, and mobile video advertising is a big opportunity,” Sandberg said.
More than 70 percent of ad breaks up to 15 seconds long were viewed to completion, most with the sound on, she said.
The 49 percent increase in total ad sales in the latest quarter compares with a 47 percent rise in the prior quarter and a 51 percent jump in the first quarter.
Facebook has been warning for more than a year about reaching a limit in “ad load,” or the number of ads the company can feature in users’ pages before crowding their News Feed.
Advertisers seem unfazed, though, spending heavily as the social network continues to attract users.
The nearly 50 percent jump in ad revenue “is phenomenal, especially when for the past few quarters they’ve been trying to bring that expectation way, way down. Yet it keeps going up,” Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said.
Of the Russia scandal enveloping Facebook publicly, Feinseth said: “In the bigger picture, I don’t think it’s a really big factor.”
The company’s performance was strong in comparison with smaller social media firms Snap Inc. and Twitter Inc. , Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.
“Facebook grew revenues by $3.3 billion year-over-year for the quarter. This is more than Twitter and Snapchat generate combined for the full year,” he said.
Facebook said about 2.07 billion people were using its service monthly as of Sept. 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected 2.06 billion monthly active users, according to FactSet.
Net income rose to $4.71 billion, or $1.59 per share, from $2.63 billion, or 90 cents per share.
Analysts on an average were expecting the company to earn $1.28, according to Thomson Reuters.
Total revenue increased 47.3 percent to $10.33 billion beating analysts estimate of $9.84 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Various US investigations into how Russia may have tried to sway American voters in the months before and after last year’s elections are hanging over Facebook and its competitors.
There is also proposed US legislation that would extend rules governing political ads on television, radio and satellite to also cover digital advertising.
“We expect more scrutiny about Facebook’s ad system ahead,” analyst Debra Aho Williamson of research firm eMarketer said in a note. “We’re also monitoring for any signs that this investigation will have a material impact on ad revenue.”
Facebook profit soars, unaffected by Russia ad issue
Facebook profit soars, unaffected by Russia ad issue
Dentsu opens sports practice in MENA with Riyadh HQ
DUBAI: International advertising group Dentsu has announced the launch of its dedicated sports practice, dentsu Sports International, in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The new practice, which focuses on sports marketing and analytics services, will be headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with additional offices in the UAE.
To provide end-to-end service to clients, the group brings together three dentsu businesses: dentsu Sports International Commercial, MKTG Sports + Entertainment and dentsu Sports Analytics.
Charlie Wylie, managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at dentsu Sports International, said: “dentsu Sports International will serve as a strategic sports and entertainment arm of dentsu in MENA, offering comprehensive solutions tailored to the needs of brands and rights holders.”
The company has appointed Olaf Borutz as vice president of commercial development, reporting to dentsu Sports International’s global chief commercial officer, Echo Li.
Borutz’s previous role as head of sports and events at law firm Al Tamimi & Company saw him advise clients on sports and events-related commercial matters, including government bodies, rights holders, agencies and players of the Saudi Pro League and Qatar Stars League.
“The appetite for sports marketing in the Kingdom is at an all-time high, with Saudi’s ambitions and investment in this space only expected to grow,” said Tarek Daouk, CEO, dentsu MENA.
A significant 62 percent of Saudi sports fans say that sport plays a bigger role in their lives than before, according to a new study conducted by dentsu Sports International.
The study also found that fans spend more time and money than their international counterparts on live events in the Kingdom, with Saudi fans attending an average of six events in person a year, more than the UK average of two events per year.
Saudi Arabia’s significant youth population is passionate about sports, with 68 percent of 18–24-year-old Saudis saying they find attending sports events more rewarding than other entertainment events.
The study also revealed that these younger consumers are the most likely to purchase premium tickets, spending 31 percent more a ticket than older fans.
Daouk said: “It’s an exciting time for sports in the region and we are thrilled to launch dentsu’s bespoke sports and entertainment offering.”
Tunisia remands journalists arrested over critical comments
- Broadcaster Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were arrested Saturday under a decree criminalizing ‘spreading false information’ among other charges, spokesman Mohamed Zitouna said
TUNIS: A Tunisian court on Wednesday ordered two journalists to be held in remand until the completion of investigations into critical comments, a court spokesman said.
Broadcaster Borhen Bssais and political commentator Mourad Zeghidi were arrested Saturday under a decree criminalizing “spreading false information” among other charges, spokesman Mohamed Zitouna said.
Zeghidi is being investigated over social media statements last February and a post in support of Mohamed Boughalleb, another journalist and critic of President Kais Saied who has been detained separately.
Bssais was arrested on accusations of “having harmed President Kais Saied through radio broadcasts and statements” online between 2019 and 2022, according to his lawyer Nizar Ayed.
Their trial is set to begin on May 22, according to their lawyers.
Both media figures are prosecuted under a law ratified by Saied in September 2022.
The law punishes people with up to five years in prison for the use of social media to “produce, spread (or) disseminate ... false news” and “slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them.”
Journalists and opposition figures have said it has been used to stifle dissent.
Since the decree came into force, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under it, according to the National Union of Tunisian Journalists.
The same night Bssais and Zeghidi were taken into police custody, masked police raided the Tunisian bar association and arrested lawyer Sonia Dahmani, also on the same law.
On Monday, another lawyer was forcibly arrested at the association’s headquarters.
The president of the bar, Hatem Meziou, on Tuesday called for an end to “the abuse of power” and “violence” targeting the lawyers.
The European Union also expressed concern over a string of arrests of civil society figures in Tunisia — the latest sign of a tightening clampdown on freedoms under Saied.
Nongovernmental organizations have decried a rollback of freedoms in Tunisia since Saied began ruling by decree after a sweeping power grab in 2021.
‘Blockout’ trend targets celebrities over Gaza silence
- Selena Gomez, Zendaya and Kim Kardashian are among the celebrities who have lost hundreds of thousands of followers
- Boycott campaign gained traction following Met Gala event last week in New York
LONDON: A new trend threatening to boycott celebrities over their refusal to speak out about the Gaza conflict is gaining momentum on social media.
Known as “Blockout 2024,” the movement has surged in popularity following the Met Gala last week.
As part of a solidarity campaign, social media users are calling for the blocking of accounts of celebrities who have remained silent on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
High-profile figures such as Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Drake are among the hundreds of celebrities facing this “digital guillotine.”
A full list is circulating on social media, leading to a significant loss of followers on Instagram and other platforms.
Actress and singer Selena Gomez reportedly lost 1 million followers on Instagram and 100,000 on X, according to US-based social media analytics site Sonic Blue.
Fellow actress and singer Zendaya, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, and her sister Kylie Jenner have also seen hundreds of thousands of followers drop.
Pro-Palestinian activists have been pressuring celebrities for months to show more support for Gaza civilians. This growing discontent reached a tipping point last week when the Met Gala’s glitz and glamour coincided with Israel’s announcement of a military offensive in Rafah.
@ladyfromtheoutside #greenscreen #greenscreenvideo #digitine #digitalguillotine #haleyybaylee ♬ original sound - Meagan
The movement was sparked by a TikTok video from influencer Haley Kalil at the Met Gala on May 7, where she lip-synced to the phrase “Let them eat cake.”
This phrase, attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, drew parallels to the French Revolution, symbolizing indifference to the suffering of the impoverished.
“It’s time for the people to conduct what I want to call a ‘digital guillotine.’ A ‘digitine,’ if you will,” said TikTok creator @ladyfromtheoutside, who kicked off the movement with her viral video.
“It’s time to block all the celebrities, influencers and wealthy socialites who are not using their resources to help those in dire need. We gave them their platforms. It’s time to take it back, take our views away, our likes, our comments, our money.”
According to Gaza authorities, at least 35,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Palestinian territory during the seven-month war, which has been widely condemned as failing to comply with international humanitarian law.
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BBC investigation leads to arrest of one of world’s most notorious people smugglers
- Barzan Majeed, nicknamed ‘Scorpion,’ is caught in Iraqi Kurdistan days after release of BBC podcast series by journalists who tracked him down and interviewed him
- Senior local official confirms officials used information from the broadcaster’s investigation to help find fugitive believed to have helped smuggle thousands of people to UK
DUBAI: Kurdish security forces arrested Barzan Majeed, described as one of the world’s most notorious people smugglers, in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday morning.
Nicknamed “Scorpion,” the fugitive is believed to have been involved in smuggling an estimated 10,000 people across the English Channel to the UK. He was arrested days after the release of a BBC podcast series in which investigative journalists tracked him down to the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq and interviewed him there.
During the interview, Majeed said he had lost count of the number of people he helped to smuggle, adding: “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count.”
He admitted that between 2016 and 2019 he was one of two people who helped run a people-smuggling operation in Belgium and France but denied he was the mastermind of the operation.
“A couple of people, when they get arrested, they say, ‘We’re working for him’ — they want to get less (of a) sentence,” he said.
Originally from Iraq, Majeed moved to the city of Nottingham, in England, in 2013 but was deported two years later. He had been on the run since failing to appear at a court in Belgium for a sentencing hearing in November 2022.
The UK’s National Crime Agency issued a warrant for his arrest that same year. The agency, which confirmed his arrest, said: “We are grateful to the BBC for highlighting his case and remain determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved in smuggling people to the UK, wherever they operate.”
A senior member of the Kurdistan Regional Government confirmed its officials had used information from the BBC investigation to locate and arrest Majeed.
Each year, thousands of people flee Iraq, including its Kurdistan Region, in the hope of finding a better life in the UK or other parts of Europe. In many cases, they pay people smugglers to transport them, but the routes and methods used by the smugglers are often dangerous and the migrants face harsh weather and potentially deadly travel conditions.
Germany deported 222 Iraqi citizens in the first three months of this year as part of an alleged agreement between Berlin and Baghdad to deport migrants who do not qualify to remain in Germany, media organization Rudaw, which is based in Iraqi Kurdistan, reported this week.
Saudi radio station MBC FM marks 30 years of broadcasting with special events
- Bosses say the celebrations honor the pioneering station’s enduring contributions to the media landscape in the Kingdom
- ‘MBC FM has captured the ears and hearts of millions of Saudis over 3 decades’ and ‘continues to lead the radio airwaves with the love and loyalty of listeners,’ says group’s chairperson
LONDON: As pioneering Saudi radio station MBC FM celebrates three decades of broadcasting in the Kingdom, it is marking the milestone with a series of events and initiatives at the MBC Group headquarters in Riyadh under the theme “30 and Still Going Strong.”
The celebrations, which began on May 12, honor the station’s enduring contributions to Saudi Arabia’s media landscape, bosses said. They include competitions, entertainment events and exclusive interviews with renowned artists and stars from across the Gulf region and the wider Arab world.
“Just as MBC FM has captured the ears and hearts of millions of Saudis over three decades, being the first commercial FM radio station in the Kingdom, the radio and music sector at MBC Group today continues to lead the radio airwaves with the love and loyalty of listeners,” said Walid Al-Ibrahim, the chairperson of MBC Group.
In addition to providing entertainment for listeners, the station has served as a launchpad for emerging talent, he added, as he highlighted its influence on local culture.
Ziad Hamza, general manager of the radio and music Sector at MBC Group, said the station remains committed to its ongoing evolution while also honoring its strong history and legacy. In particular he highlighted investments in infrastructure, diversity of content and audience engagement as the station adapted to changing tastes and preferences among listeners.
“We have worked on developing the infrastructure and creating a comprehensive modern environment for the radio sector … by investing in Saudi youth talents, including radio presenters, producers, programmers and technicians,” said Hamza.
“We have also launched the MoodMBC application, which includes MBC FM, Panorama FM and MBC Podcast, in addition to enhanced options for direct communication, as well as rich and diverse content catering to poetry lovers, music session enthusiasts, and current affairs followers.
“Our goal has always been to strike a balance between the tastes of listeners and the needs of advertisers, facilitating our clients’ access to various target audience segments around the clock.”
