Growing Internet penetration and a large youth
population Facebook expand its user base in India to 112 million — which is the
largest after the US. Facebook, which had more than 100 million users in April,
saw its monthly active users (MAUs)’s base touching 112 million at the end of
September. The number of daily active users from India is 52 million.
Globally, the company has 1.35 billion users,
while the daily active users are 864 million. India has the largest user base
outside of the US for Facebook.
“We have seen tremendous growth from across
regions. There is still a huge market opportunity to tap into. We are engaging
actively with our users and partners (brands, advertisers etc) on how can their
experience on the platform be enhanced further,” Facebook India Managing
Director Kirthiga Reddy told PTI.
Of the 112 million users in India, more than
99 million users are using the platform through their mobile phones at least
once a month. About 45 million users in India are using their mobile phones
every day to connect with their friends on Facebook.
Facebook has also conducted a study titled
‘Coming of Age on Screens’, which aims to understand people’s attitudes and
behaviour both online and offline. The study found that 77 percent of the users
in the 13-24 years age group agreed that they can’t leave their house without
their mobile, while 63 percent agreed that they would prefer to give up their
TV for their mobile phone.
“Another interesting finding that emerged was
that youth today use an average of four devices and often use multiple screens
in the evening, especially while watching TV,” Reddy said. They suffer from
FOBO (Fear Of Being Offline) with 77 percent respondents saying they like to be
connected to the Internet wherever they are, she added.
“Social media is the first place this group
would turn to share a photo of themselves (41 percent) , a funny video or joke
(37 percent), an interesting news article (32 percent) and a random observation
(24 percent) — ranking ahead of face-to-face, text, email and other means of
communications,” she said.
Reddy said the study will help advertisers
understand this young group better in terms of how do they connect and the role
of technology and different digital platforms in the lives of youth.
PTI
