More than three million businesses actively advertise on Facebook, according to an update posted by the company on the Facebook for Business page.
The number of active advertisers on Facebook grew by 50% in one year, with more than 70% of these businesses located outside of the United States.
Notably, Southeast Asia is the fastest growing region, according to Nadia Tan, head of SMB in Southeast Asia at Facebook.
Two countries out of the top five growing countries in terms of percentage growth in 2015 over 2014 come from Southeast Asia: Vietnam (1st) and Indonesia (3rd). The other three countries in the top five list are Egypt, Peru and Turkey in second, fourth and fifth position respectively.
“More than 3 million businesses are active advertisers with Facebook globally, and [Southeast Asia] is the fastest growing region. Today, 74% of Thai users and 73% of Vietnam users are actively connecting with businesses that matter to them,” wrote Tan.
“Small businesses are at the heart of local economies in Southeast Asia, and we are seeing more local businesses turn to Facebook Pages for their mobile business solutions,” said Tan.
There is no question that marketers are heading to Facebook due to its ability to delivering well-targeted ads. This has helped the social media giant double its profit for Q4 2015 to $701 million compared to a year ago, with mobile ads making up 80% of the company’s total ad business for the fourth quarter of 2015.
Strong mobile push aside, a large part of Facebook’s success as a social media platform of choice could probably be attributed to its aggressiveness in limiting and tailoring what users see on their timeline. Indeed, its level of success is such that Twitter is reportedly mulling implementing a Facebook-like timeline as its growth stalls.