Facebook racks up 27% revenue rise in India

New delhi: According to filings with the Registrar of Companies, Facebook posted a 27 percent hike in its revenues in India. It reported numbers to Rs. 123.5 crore during the year to March 2015 from Rs. 97.6 crore a year earlier.

However, the social media firm earned less than Rs. 9 per user on an average in the country, its second-largest market outside the United States, where it earned Rs. 630 per user.

The revenue from India is negligible for the California-headquartered firm, which clocked USD 12.5 billion (nearly Rs 84,000 crore) in global sales and is pushing for a free internet plan in the country to take on search engine firm Google.

According to experts, marketers are gradually looking to spread their budget across social media platforms and mobile applications. Facebook's latest venture, Free Basics, a plan to make parts of internet available for free by convincing local telecom companies such as Reliance Communications to cover data charges, could be a game changer.