Hello India! Facebook Now Available In Local Languages of Almost 1B More People
One year ago this week, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was traveling throughout India meeting with local technologists and vacationing. Reporters wanted to know, what was he doing there? Speculation that a Facebook India would soon launch was inevitable.
Apparently, earlier today Facebook users in India were greeted with a new message upon logging in: Facebook is now available in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. As of 2001, (the latest numbers available) those languages had a combined 770 million speakers. Facebook has just over 200 million users, so this could be a huge opportunity for growth if the company can pull off more than just interface translation.
Facebook is growing fast all around the world. Last month, for example, we reported that the site's number of active users in Africa and Asia grew over 70% in 12 weeks. Orkut is by far the dominant social network (and website in general) in India - but that could change in a big way if localization is pulled off effectively.
We expect Facebook will make an announcement about the availability of these six Indian languages sometime very soon - we were told about it by reader Nimish Adani, of Workosaur.com. Adani's take on the news? "This move isn't necessarily going to multiply Facebook's usage as most people here would continue to use Facebook in English," he says. "Usage of regional languages (in the online space and in the professional world in India) isn't as popular as is the case with countries like Russia, China or those in Europe.
"I'd see this development as a move to woo those from the smaller towns and cities of India who are currently on Orkut. The more urban and suave English-speaking audience have already moved from Orkut to Facebook. MySpace (despite having an office in India) is a complete non-entity in India. Bebo has also come in recently but again its a non-starter."
What do you think?
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@Marshall Wooing those from the interiors of India who are currently on Orkut is definitely what this is about. The translation give them a reason to join the party.
of course its about taking users from Orkut. I logged into Facebook earlier today and found this. http://ff.im/2Gt4o
I think its not a big deal to see local languages being offered .
90% of indian users of facebook would like to communicate only in english.
They are trying to steal orkut users away.
Any type of change that provides the essentials such as language, and etc, will help guarantee more visitors will come and join. The more mobile it is, the more it will used across the globe.
Savvy move by Facebook IMO. Some of the most active and innovative business related content and application developers that I have recently subscribed to are based in India. In addition to being talented, bright and creative. These entities seem less impeded by sensitivities concerning commercial development and applications. "It may be the future but, we still have to eat."
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Posted by: thejeshgn.com
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May 7, 2009 9:37 PM
Marshall, I agree that overall it is going to increase Facebook members in India but the increase might not be so dramatic, simply because you are overlooking the fact that Internet penetration in India is extremely low (1% as per a survey I came across; i.e 11-12M).
On the other hand mobile penetration is way better (almost 250M users). But then again, GPRS/EDGE users are a small percentage of that and moreover majority handsets sold in India don't support display of Indian languages. Thereby lowering the estimates further. So facebook on mobile is also not going to see a major increase.
I think, like most people have already pointed out, the move is simply to poach Orkut users. (Btw, Orkut mobile is in top 10 visited site on Mobiles in India)
pkj - es, I wondered about internet connectivity penetration. Thanks for your comment.
Good to see Tamil :)
So Faceboook is following myspace foots to spread it's wing in India. Few months back myspace started giving a personal touch for Indian users by launching an Indian version of myspace and teaming up with MTV. Finally these social networking websites realize the potential market for their social networking websites.
Though Till not Orkut Rules the Indian Social networking market.
Having more ethnic languages will increase traffic to Facebook by a lot, especially as the population of India is huge and now many of citizens tend to search around on social networks for contacts and friends!
The first mover advantage in Indian lies with Orkut and nothings gonna change that..
Most Indians even who are not web savvy finds Orkut a great way of keeping in touch with their friends and folks and I doubt facebook is going to change that
Facebook in India ( Indian residents ) would pobably find a lot of duplicated audience that will use facebook as a secondary SN ( social network ) while Orkut will be used as primary one..
I am interested how facebook plans to monetize its indian foray.. None of the indian social networks including Bigadda backed by the powerful reliance group has managed to make any money..
The greatest benefit of Facebook is that it has many groups on the site that you can join. So if you are interested in Chicago Cubs you can research Chicago Cubs in the groups section and you will be able to find friends on there that like the Cubs. This is just one example, I know that you can join groups of your favorite football team, television show, or whatever you want for the most part! If you can't find a group for your interest, you can simply create one!
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This is just a way to create a stupid buzz. http://woikr.com/news/facebook-in-indian-languages-is-pointless/
hello my name is izhar ahmad.i am join facebook first time.
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This is just one example, I know that you can join groups of your favorite football team, television show, or whatever you want for the most part! If you can't find a group for your interest, you can simply create one!
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Facebook is a great social media tool to communicate among each other and local indigenous people communicate among each other. Internet Marketing Course
GPRS/EDGE users are a small percentage of that and moreover majority handsets sold in India don't support display of Indian languages.
Orkut will always be used a sa primary social networking site in India. I like facebook too, as it have so many options within.
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Facebook is a great social media tool to communicate among each other and local indigenous people communicate among each other.
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It's good to see Facebook is reaching out further to more people.
There's really no stopping to Facebook. They broke the 300 million mark recently and on their way to half a BILLION!
Facebook is the number one social networking site on the planet. It's no wonder they want to take over India. I am surprised actually, with so much tech talent in India, why they would let a foreign company have such dominance in their social networking online life.
Facebook is just taking over the world. Its amazing how many people are on facebook. It seems like my whole family and friends are on facebook. ITs so fun.
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Facebook seems to be everywhere maybe it's about time I joined ! But for old guys like me it's difficult to understand all ths social networking stuff - seems like a lot of hot air
Facebook is now available in Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. As of 2001, (the latest numbers available) those languages
Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with all your friends and family. you can find anyone on there.
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Savvy move by Facebook IMO. Some of the most active and innovative business related content and application developers that I have recently subscribed to are based in India. In addition to being talented, bright and creative. These entities seem less impeded by sensitivities concerning commercial development and applications. "It may be the future but, we still have to eat."
That's great. I hope facebook does good in India, we need more variety around.
Facebook has almost all but eclipsed Myspace these days. It is obvious by this move to India that they are going to continue to aggressively grow.
Jupiter Jack
I think this is a great move for Facebook. The more languages the better as far as I'm concerned!
This indeed is a very welcome step for Indians as well as social networking enthusiasts as India is a multicultural and multi linguist country then here it would be vast and ample scope for things.
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Facebook has almost all but eclipsed Myspace these days. It is obvious by this move to India that they are going to continue to aggressively grow.
Facebook is scary sometimes. They have so much information and now they are going to other countries as big as the United States.
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It was expected, as 1 billion more people means more profit, reputation and exposure for Facebook.
I think this is a great way for people in India to join up. However there are already quite a few established sites that are trusted by those in India to meet up at. I'm curious how this will affect them.
I have spoke with a few people who used this and they said it won't replace some of the other popular sites for them.
Posted by: CNA Training
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December 11, 2009 2:25 PM
I think offering facebook and other sites in different languages is great! It helps the we be a better place. Of course, I only know English so it doesn't help me any but there are millions of people it will help so I am happy for them.
Orkut seems to work well is this just to gain market share?
I use english on facebook now and the people I communicate with do as well.
Facebook is just about market share not worrying about much else.
Face book is a good marketing application for me but english is the language I use.
facebook is a great social media tool whatever the language.
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