100 Million Indians Vote for Facebook

India 2nd country after US to hit landmark

 Facebook, the worlds largest social media company, has crossed 100 million active users in India the second country, after the United States, in which it has done so And it already has a new figure in mind for India: one billion users Confirming the crossing of the landmark of 100 million on March 31, Javier Olivan, the company official in charge of global growth, told ET: Now, we look forward to 1 billion in India thats a different focus and challenge.
Economic Times, April 9, 2014

Olivan, vice-president, growth & analytics spelled out three broad points as part of a 10-year road map to increase its user base in India manifold 1. To work with telecom, technology and handset companies to increase internet penetration, including under its Internet.org initiative 2. To provide free basic Internet services to mobile users, and nudge them to embrace data, as it has done in the Philippines and Paraguay 3. To give product development a mobile-first orientation. The first device that people will have to enter a connected world in India is a lowend mobile phone, explains Olivan
Economic Times, April 9, 2014

 The ascent of Facebook in India has been speedy and has been powered by the mobile phone When the American company set up its first India office in 2010, in Hyderabad, it had 8 million users in the country Company figures state that 84 million of its 100 million users in India access the social networking site from their mobile devices Facebook, which was set up in 2004, had 1.23 billion users across the world as of December 31, 2013 In 2013, it posted revenues of $7.8 billion. In the last three years, Facebook doubled its user base globally, from 600 million to 1.2 billion, says Jitender Miglani, social media analyst, Forrester Research In the same period, in India, it grew more than five times from 17 million to 100 million
Economic Times, April 9, 2014

 However, monetisation of that user base remains a challenge Facebook does not put out India-specific revenue figures, but Forrester estimates its India revenues at $40-50 million Company figures show that, in the first quarter of 2013, its average revenue per user in Asia was $0.6 This was nearly one-sixth that of the $3.5 Facebook earned per user in US and Canada

Economic Times, April 9, 2014

 At 100 million users, Facebook is valuable to any marketer It will attract a lot of share of digital ad spending For now, the focus in markets like India is to capture users We are focussing on the growth side of the company, says Olivan On that front, it faces challenges from broad-suite offerings like Google+, as well as focused start-ups like Snapchat Google has eight times the revenues of Facebook and is a threat, says Miglani of Forrester Research
Economic Times, April 9, 2014

 Jessie Paul, CEO of Pa ul Writer Strategic Advisory, a Bangalorebased marketing consultancy, points out that Facebook still has to secure itself on the mobile Facebook is a desktop story,It was not created for mobile-first and thats where new internet users are; Facebook for mobile is not as cool as on the desktop, she says What goes in its favour, she adds, is that theres no alternative as yet with the same kind of heft as Facebook
Economic Times, April 9, 2014