We Have To Move Beyond English As A Language In Order To Grow In India: Facebook MD

After 100 days of joining Facebook as Managing Director, India & South Asia, Umang Bedi interacted with media and shared his plans for the year 2017-18.

He emphasises on how mobile is growing huge in India and Facebook moves business, in his 42 minutes of presentation.

The organisation is having a huge impact with brands to move their business and which is measured and driving the real outcome.

The most important shift is in digital advertising market which is 14 per cent of 7.5 billion dollar market. It will increase to 40 per cent in the year 2020. 

"We clearly believe mobility is the future of India and mobile as a medium of communication in with relation to print and television it has got established in the shortest possible time", he said.

Fivefold is the growth of the mobile in compared to total population. The total growth of over the next billion population coming on mobile of 1 billion out of which 70 per cent is coming from Asia and 337 million are coming from India alone. A report said by GSMA statistics.

Bedi feels, mobile is the internet and the internet is mobile given the fact that three billion smart devices are going to come online in the next three years. Such as smart cars or televisions.

All the leading marketers and media houses in India are going regional. They feel regional is the new national. Facebook is riding the same vehicle to consolidate their presence and making internet connection relevant in Asia and India through local content, local language and local awareness.

Supporting that move, Umang Bedi said, "We have to move beyond English as a language, we need to work with the content which is locally relevant to the folks to consume. Mobile is projected to grow to at 40 per cent in India."

After spending time in the market, with different groups, consumers and the agencies. Facebook is set to refine its mission and will do everything in support of their mission.

"I think of Facebook as an unparalleled discovery platform and the beauty is to drive deep engagement. People are spending 55 minutes per day on Facebook apps , that's because we are able to provide personalise, meaningful and relevant experience", added Bedi.

One out of every 5 min spent on the internet is spent on Facebook and 66 per cent users come back every day and 90 per cent comes via mobile.

Facebook has three-fold focus in its India strategy. Starring with aligning the mission of the company and to grow the number of people who can deeply connect and to come on the platform. The second strategy is to build an experience which is relevant and third is to be absolutely valuable for partners.

"We are going with really deep vertical focus, our vision for business in India is to be really loved and a trusted brand. To be deeply integrated into the fabric to give experiences which are valuable", added Bedi.

The India Numbers
For Facebook, India is the second largest country available in 12 Indian languages with 166 million monthly active users and 85 million daily active users. The monthly active users on mobile are 159 million and 81 million daily active users as of Q3 2016.

It can be recalled earlier this month, Facebook announced that India is now the top market for WhatsApp with 160 million monthly active users.

Quoting the Deloitte 2015 report, Bedi said, "We contribute $4 billion and 335,000 jobs to India through our marketing, platform and connectivity efforts."

Well, he didn't share any numbers about how Facebook India is adding to the revenue but indicates, that it is one of the growing country and among the top in Asia.

When asked, Marketers still prefer traditional media over digital when they allocate their marketing budget. How is he going to deal with it? He replied, "It's a sign of times to come digital will start giving a measurement, and real brand outcome via experience. Brands will start leaning towards digital. But, digital need to focus step by step."

Brand Likes' Facebook
In his presentation, Bedi shared various examples of how different brands across the genre used Facebook as a platform to reach out to their TG.

Brands such as Ola, Tanishq, Durex, Garnier, Veet and Snapdeal used facebook for their products and services.

Commenting about using the social platform, Rohit Jindal, Marketing Director, Reckitt Benckiser India, said, "Working with Facebook Creative Shop helped us turn our existing assets into content that was better suited to the way people discover, research, and share and consume on mobile. In a country where our audience is increasingly mobile-centric, this has never been more important."

In another, testimonial, Garnier, Marketing Head, Pankaj Sharma, said, "Facebook's ad solutions helped us deliver our brand message to a wide carefully targeted audience in the key months of March and April 2016, contributing to Garnier's overall success".