Colombian rider Rigoberto Uran from Cannonade Drapac Professional Cycling Team attends the awarding ceremony for the stage winner in Chambery
http://www.pittsburghpenguinsteamstore.com/adidas-olli-maatta-jersey , France, on July 9, 2017. The 181.5 kilometers 9th stage of the Tour de France from Nantua to Chambery ended on Sunday. (XinhuaChen Yichen)
Weekly choices of Xinhua photo
China's Qinghai Hoh Xil enters world heritage list as natural site
Chinese aircraft carrier formation arrives in HK, to open for public to visit
Main structure of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge finished
Aircraft carrier "Liaoning" sails near Lamma Island in HK
Tourists visit Int'l Bazar at Urumqi in NW China's Xinjiang
Lotus flowers blossom across China
Hot dog eating contest held in New York
Facebook Inc offered reassurances to investors on Wednesday that its digital ad business would remain highly profitable, despite a dip in usage on the social media network and an overhaul of its flagship News Feed.
The company said in an earnings report that quarterly revenue jumped 47 percent from a year earlier, and executives said on a conference call that they saw more chances to make money even if people spend less time on Facebook.
Analysts had wondered about the resilience of the world’s largest social media network, which is making changes to its products to deter foreign influence campaigns like ones that it says Russia has carried out and to stem the spread of sensationalism.
Facebook added to jitters after the bell on Wednesday when, in its earnings report, it said that at the end of last year time spent by users had fallen by about 50 million hours a day.
Shortly afterward, though, Facebook executives expressed optimism on the call with analysts, saying the changes they were making in response to criticism would be healthy for the business in the long term and might not even hurt much in the short term.
“I want to be clear: The most important driver of our business has never been time spent by itself. It’s the quality of the conversations and connections,” Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on the call.
Facebook management “acknowledged things that maybe most investors weren’t thinking about before — the reduction of users and usage — but at the same time they pointed to a lot of positive trends on their other platforms,” Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser said.
Although Facebook usage is down, he said, “One shouldn’t be reflectively negative on this.”
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told analysts that recent changes to reduce disinformation on Facebook could create “more monetization opportunities.”
Sandberg said she was optimistic about potential revenue from ads on “stories” on Facebook and Instagram, while Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said the average price per ad increased 43 percent in quarter.
“They said average revenue per ad was up a lot, that quality of ads has improved, and that the engagement declines were not meaningful,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.
“In other words, better quality engagement and better ability to target ads. The street probably likes that,” he said.
Facebook said that time spent was falling at the end of last year by about 50 million hours a day due to changes that it said reduced viral videos, even before the company announced a series of changes to the News Feed that may further reduce user engagement.
Facebook’s 1.4 billion daily active users was up 14 percent from a year earlier, but below analysts’ estimate of 1.41 billion for the fourth quarter, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet.
The number of daily users in the US and Canada fell for the first time in Facebook’s history.
BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Yi Jianlian finished with 26 points, leading Guangdong past Beijing 109-96 in the 34th round games of the 2017-18 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Thursday.
The loss ensures the Beijing Ducks are stuck with a three-game losing streak on the road.
Beijing, the former league winner was dying for a win, as it has lost two out of three games on the road trip and dropped to eighth on the standings after losing to Guangzhou on Tuesday. Randolph Morris' refusal to play after Aaron Jackson's injury layoff just added to their predicament.
Against Guangdong, Beijing played aggressively in the first half as Zhai Xiaochuan put up 21 points including five three-pointers, yet the visitors never got to build a big lead and trailed by one point before the interval.
Fang Shuo hit a fade-away shot against Yi Jianlian in the third quarter, which turned out to be the visitors' last highlight. Guangdong had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and closed out the game comfortably.
Xinjiang's victory over Shanxi would be anything but a relief for Beijing. Beating Shanxi 120-108, the defending champion managed to escape from the bottom four of the playoff picture. Guangzhou, the 10th seed within the playoff hunt, lost to Fujian 125-132, which was good news for Shanghai, who trounced Tongxi 118-105 for a record of 18 wins against 16 losses.
Elsewhere, Aolong edged Sichuan 116-113. Shavlik Randolph contributed a season-high 52 points, theoretically helping his team stay in the playoff hunt. Shandong cruised to a 127-103 win over Jiangsu to stand ahead of their opponents in the standings by having one game in hand.
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