Facebook plans suitable apps to woo India users

NEW DELHI: Social networking giant Facebook, which on Thursday acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, is betting on India’s growing “social ecosystem” for growth. The company, which now has 93 million Indian users, plans to connect more people to the Internet, says Chris Daniels, vice-president, business development, Facebook. Excerpts from an interview.

What is going to be Facebook’s focus in 2014?

One of the core focuses for Facebook in 2014 will be to stress on growth by bringing the Internet to more people. I’ve been focused on expanding my knowledge of more emerging markets, where people are just coming online and how we can increase the pace. What is your perception of the India market?

India is a big focus for Facebook. It is a market that is doing two things — adding more people to the Internet and helping people migrate from feature phones to smartphones. We want to be sure our apps suit their needs.

Where do you see the dynamics of Facebook vis-à-vis other social networking sites, particularly in the Indian context? The social ecosystem is growing tremendously and Facebook is a part of that ecosystem. But there are also going to be other social apps, whether it is a Whatsapp or a Twitter, that’s actually great. We want to see the world becoming more social. We are going to remain relevant; we are in the place where apart from doing all sorts of things, people can particularly connect with friends.

But you will need to keep innovating, with so many apps coming in from competitors… Facebook has a good long history of innovation, from being a desktop company to a mobile firm. About 53% of our revenue last quarter came from mobile business.

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