Apriem’s co-CIO Benjamin Lau was recently featured in Yahoo discussing the growth potential of Facebook Inc. (FB). Below is a short excerpt.
Facebook doesn’t just own Facebook. It also owns one-time rival Instagram, which has 500 million monthly active users. Despite the large user base, Instagram doesn’t contribute much to Facebook’s breakneck pace of growth. For now, at least. “eMarketer estimates that Instagram will contribute less than 10 percent to Facebook’s worldwide revenues this year,” says Benjamin Lau, co-chief investment officer and principal at Apriem Advisors in Irvine, California.
But, Lau says, “that percentage should jump to 14 percent in 2017.” Why? “Instagram has been increasing the number of ads users are seeing,” Lau says.
On top of Instagram though, Facebook also owns two massive messaging apps, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Both reached 1 billion MAUs in 2016. Facebook is only now making revenue a priority on those two platforms. “Facebook hasn’t fully realized the monetization potential of WhatsApp and Messenger,” says Lau. “We feel they’re in a great position to dominate going forward.”