What the inaugural Internet.org summit means for India & Facebook
As the communication fraternity in India gears up for the visit of Facebook’s Co-Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg later this week – on October 9 and 10, 2014 in New Delhi – the importance of India as a market for the social media network becomes more apparent. What it also highlights is the impact that global players such as Facebook are likely to have in the connectivity growth in India. In the last three years, India has seen a marked growth in its internet users to 250 million, as quoted by various reports. This has not only opened up newer opportunities for businesses but has also established the base for more ways of connecting with consumers. This combined with Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi’s, promise of a ‘Digital India’ has increased the expectations that come with a growing digital ecosystem.
For most Indian consumers, mobile has been the first window to the internet. Facebook’s mobile-first approach has made it one of the largest and fastest growing platforms in India, and in turn has also made India the second largest market for Facebook after its home turf, United States. At the recently concluded dmexco at Cologne, Carolyn Everson, Vice President, Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook, stated that consumers in some pockets in India, where feature phones are the most prevalent way of connecting, asked for Facebook to retailers as a synonym to internet.
Earlier this year, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg visited India to meet IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad outlining Facebook’s plans for the market.
The inaugural Internet.org summit however must be seen with more seriousness than the expansion plans of one player. Internet.org is a joint initiative of industry bodies that are actively looking to connect the next five billion consumers, and Facebook is playing a pioneering role in this effort. Internet.org is a platform collaborating the efforts of Facebook and six mobile companies- Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera Software, and Qualcomm to foster the efficiency and effectiveness of internet services across all communities. The initiative was launched on August 20,2013.
In a whitepaper that had followed the announcement last year, Facebook outlined the pain points that should be addressed to increase digital connectivity. These included the cost of data and the simplicity of using handsets and apps amongst other points. The objective of the whitepaper was to chalk out actionable points that would impact connectivity. In his upcoming visit, Mr Zuckerberg is also scheduled to meet the Prime Minister of India and some of these points are expected to be tabled.
Facebook’s focus in India, and the fact that it chose this market for the Internet.org Summit, reiterates the potential that the market holds in connecting more consumers unlike the more mature markets. As these efforts convert to more connected audiences, the benefits would not be limited to players like Facebook or others from the Internet.org alliance.
With inputs from Hita Gupta
