Mark Zuckerberg’s company aims to invest in segments like movies, music and cricket to drive user engagement in India as part of its new video strategy in 2021.
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO believes what happens in India is important for the entire world, as the decisions made here will shape the global discussion around the technology’s impact on economic opportunity and outcome for the people.
Talking at the virtual event called ‘Facebook Fuel for India’ on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said, “What happens in India is important for the whole world. India’s building local capabilities and tech capacity to power innovative new business models and provide the citizens access to digital financial inclusion.”
As the social networking giant claims, India has the largest communities for Facebook and WhatsApp. There are around 15 million people in India, who use Whatsapp Business app. Also, Instagram too is getting there with a surging user number. Hence, the company sees India as a key market to test and launch its new features.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company is now working on several features and applications that would be launched in India in near future. These include Instagram Reels, Facebook Watch, Whatsapp Payments etc. So far, India is playing a crucial role in Facebook’s product strategy for the future.
Why India in focus for Mark Zuckerberg?
In India, around 700 million people access the internet, thanks to the revolution in the mobile data came through Jio’s arrival. The data has become way cheaper than before. With the arrival of Chinese brands, availability of affordable and feature-enabled 4G smartphones have increased exponentially.
With this huge user base, Mark Zuckerberg’s company sees India as a wide-open market with growth opportunity across segments like entertainment, healthcare, education etc.
As Facebook claims, the company believes that it has an important role to play in the economic recovery of businesses, especially for the small players in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the economy.
Globally, around 200 million small businesses across the world use the Facebook group of apps every month to reach their potential customers. India contributes a large chunk in this segment.
As Facebook says, the company is focussing on driving economic recovery in 2021 in collaboration with these small businesses in the country. Besides that, the company is also working on plans to offer newer video experiences on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp; which will not only lure the personal users but commercial users as well.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company also added that India is one of the leading markets for Facebook Watch. Also, it has said that the company will continue to invest in segments like movies, music and cricket to drive user engagement as part of its video strategy. On the other hand, WhatsApp aims to enable a broad suite of fintech solutions like micro-pensions, digital insurance products among others through its partnerships with various financial institutions.
In order to increase its user base and tap into the growing video user base, Facebook is relying on the coming 5G technology, which is likely to increase India’s appetite for video. The company has already acquired minority stakes in Jio Platforms, startups like Meesho and Unacademy. These moves are expected to give Facebook leverage in coming days.
