Facebook’s popularity in India: A cultural perspective

According to the latest report by Experian reveals how much time people living in different countries spend on Facebook. Singapore users topped the chart, with US at the 5th position India at the 7thposition. Brazil users spent only less than half the average time spent by Singapore. The high average minutes spent on Facebook provides an opportunity for firms to gain greater sales and engagement through content and advertising. The key finding of this study also inferred that India experienced the fastest growth in Facebook use over the past year, with the social network accounting for an increase in market share of 88% year on year (YOY) in August 2011 whereas US experienced a market share increase from Facebook of 5% YOY.

Facebook has become the most popular social media platform in India. With 31 million active users (as of August 2011), India trails only the United States and Indonesia in global usage. This has surpassed the orkut (social networking site by Google) users, which was the most popular before 2010. Nevertheless, Facebook has conquered the social media networking in India, just as it has in almost all countries now.

Market	Average time spent on Facebook in August 2011 per session
Singapore	38 mins 46 sec
New Zealand	30 mins 31 sec
Australia	26 mins 27 sec
UK	25 mins 33 sec
US	20 mins 46 sec
France	21 mins 53 sec
India	20 mins 21 sec
Brazil	18 mins 19 sec

At present India is the 3^rd most country with 100 million internet users after China (485 million) and US (245 million). As per one of the recent surveys made by Google, the usage of internet in India would be increased triple by 2014. I think by that time India may surpass US in terms of number of internet users. Another interesting factor is that Indian users are not using facebook during work hours (Penn Olson, 2010). I feel this is one of the reasons, that in spite India being the 2^nd most densely populated country in the world, still has less usage of facebook than US.

Around 350 million of the active users currently are accessing Facebook through their mobile devices around the world. Approximately 3 of 5 smartphone users in US access social networking websites/facebook whereas in India the mobile phones are used the most to access facebook. The average cost of smartphones is also high in India than US. Same is the case with iPad’s. Therefore, I believe that increase in use of smartphones and iPad’s in India would also increase the facebook users and its usage. Also, there is a huge potential for content and advertising markets in India to capture user’s attention and to enhance the marketing through better engagement in social networks.

Also, with the above interesting facts I feel that there is a lot of difference as to how facebook is used in India. Many companies in India have blocked all the social media sites like facebook, orkut or twitter while at work in fear of losing productivity. Students in colleges are not allowed to use cell phones during class hours. Internet access is limited to only Wired networks most of the places. Wifi and 3G technology is introduced only recently, eventually reducing the facebook usage to a large extent. Privacy settings for photos, comments, etc are extensively used more by girls than the boys. Friend requests are generally accepted only if they are well known to the individual especially among girls. Farmville app is one of the most used facebook app among the youth. People tend to ignore ads unless and until it is really interesting.