in emerging markets , such as ghana , india , nigeria and uganda , wireless networks tend to be significantly less advanced than those in the united states , and initial voice networks continue to be deployed in underdeveloped areas . a majority of consumers in these markets still utilize basic wireless services , predominantly on feature phones , while advanced device penetration remains low . in more developed urban locations within these markets , early-stage data network deployments are underway . carriers are focused on completing voice network build-outs while also investing in initial data networks as wireless data usage and smartphone penetration within their customer bases begin to accelerate . in markets with rapidly evolving network technology , such as south africa and most of the countries in latin america where we do business , initial voice networks , for the most part , have already been built out , and carriers are focused on 3g and 4g network build outs . consumers in these regions are increasingly adopting smartphones and other advanced devices , and , as a result , the usage of bandwidth-intensive mobile applications is growing materially . recent spectrum auctions in these rapidly evolving markets have allowed incumbent carriers to accelerate their data network deployments and have also enabled new entrants to begin initial investments in data networks . smartphone penetration and wireless data usage in these markets are growing rapidly , which typically requires that carriers continue to invest in their networks in order to maintain and augment their quality of service . finally , in markets with more mature network technology , such as germany and france , carriers are focused on deploying 4g data networks to account for rapidly increasing wireless data usage among their customer base . with higher smartphone and advanced device penetration and significantly higher per capita data usage , carrier investment in networks is focused on 4g coverage and capacity . we believe that the network technology migration we have seen in the united states , which has led to significantly denser networks and meaningful new business commencements for us over a number of years , will ultimately be replicated in our less advanced international markets . as a result , we expect to be able to leverage our extensive international portfolio of approximately 104470 communications sites and the relationships we have built with our carrier customers to drive sustainable , long-term growth . we have master lease agreements with certain of our tenants that provide for consistent , long-term revenue and reduce the likelihood of churn . our master lease agreements build and augment strong strategic partnerships with our tenants and have significantly reduced colocation cycle times , thereby providing our tenants with the ability to rapidly and efficiently deploy equipment on our sites . property operations new site revenue growth . during the year ended december 31 , 2016 , we grew our portfolio of communications real estate through the acquisition and construction of approximately 45310 sites . in a majority of our asia , emea and latin america markets , the revenue generated from newly acquired or constructed sites resulted in increases in both tenant and pass-through revenues ( such as ground rent or power and fuel costs ) and expenses . we continue to evaluate opportunities to acquire communications real estate portfolios , both domestically and internationally , to determine whether they meet our risk-adjusted hurdle rates and whether we believe we can effectively integrate them into our existing portfolio. .
what was the ratio of the growth of the communications real estate portfoliosfor the emea to us in 2016
property operations expenses . direct operating expenses incurred by our property segments include direct site level expenses and consist primarily of ground rent and power and fuel costs , some or all of which may be passed through to our tenants , as well as property taxes , repairs and maintenance . these segment direct operating expenses exclude all segment and corporate selling , general , administrative and development expenses , which are aggregated into one line item entitled selling , general , administrative and development expense in our consolidated statements of operations . in general , our property segments 2019 selling , general , administrative and development expenses do not significantly increase as a result of adding incremental tenants to our sites and typically increase only modestly year-over-year . as a result , leasing additional space to new tenants on our sites provides significant incremental cash flow . we may , however , incur additional segment selling , general , administrative and development expenses as we increase our presence in our existing markets or expand into new markets . our profit margin growth is therefore positively impacted by the addition of new tenants to our sites but can be temporarily diluted by our development activities. .