Growth in Asian and African markets is opening more investment prospects for social giant, Facebook, to widen up its domain by building up offices in emerging markets like India, Indonesia and Kenya.Not to mention, Facebook has 437.1 million active users in the Asia-Pacific region and 181.4 million users in the Middle East and Africa. That includes only about 12.8% of the population in the Middle East and Africa and 10.9% of the Asia-Pacific region while nearly half of the United States population has signed on to Facebook.
Social giant is updating its mobile app for an efficient usage among target group in areas where internet connections is timely slow or almost non-existent amid frequently launched updates. This would help users in accessing Facebook within bandwidth-constrained areas like India and Africa. The project was already under trial in October this year where all employees were encouraged to experience how the social network works within slower speeds – an initiative social giant titled 2G Tuesdays.Likewise 2G Bug Bashreleased in Indian office earlier this weekinclined 20 employees worked to identify and fix app errors.
Facebook has been building more offline experiences since last two yearswhen Google introduced more offline features to Google Maps in November so users can view and maps and directions without a mobile connection. In August, Snapchat added a travel mode, that lets users decide whether the app can pre-download content. In 2013, Facebook added offline posting to the mobile app while last yearthe users could like posts without an Internet connection. As for the Facebook News Feed, the already encrypted ones appear to its users till the app gets connected with an internet provider. Previously, the app did not take into account content that had already been viewed, whether the user driftedskimmedover the post, just scrolled past or interacted with it. Additionally, Facebook users can now not only post and like while offline but also comment and reply.
“One particular focus for our team right now is emerging markets in Asia and Africa. People are very rapidly coming online. We need to make sure people in those markets can access Facebook in the same way.” – Facebook Product manager, Chris Marra
