Facebook has announced that it has 100 million monthly active users in Africa, 80 percent of which use smartphones to access the site.
The uptick in African users marks a new target audience for marketers in a quarter where the social network's global revenue for mobile ads has increased 150 percent, Reuters reported.
Of the population, about 10 percent is on Facebook. Seven in 10 of those users are getting Internet connection on mobile phones, while 6 percent use desktop computers.
"There is a fantastic opportunity for business as well if you are local or a global business. Knowing that there is all these people now in Africa that you can connect with, that is exciting as well," said Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, as quoted by Reuters.
Facebook's mobile advertising worldwide constitutes around 62 percent of overall ad revenue. The world's biggest social network, which has more than 1.3 billion active users around the globe, will be investing in the African market and could open an office on the continent in 2015.
The company has more than 1.5 million active advertisers, according to Reuters.
In other news, Facebook will be adding video play counts to the site this week, a function that will measure a clip's popularity, Gizmodo reported.
Video views have increased by more than 50 percent from May through July, Fidji Simo, project management director of video, said in a company blog post. Facebook videos have averaged more than 1 billion views daily since June, and the site is developing a feature that will show related videos to bring in additional views.
"Publishers and public figures are also creating and sharing more great video content on Facebook, from on-the-ground reporting from media organizations to exclusive releases and behind-the-scenes videos from public figures," Simo wrote. "The goal of News Feed is to deliver the right stories to the right people at the right time, from the people and things you care about."
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