India would be a key target market for Facebook. The popular social networking site reveals that its user base from India has more than doubled in the past one year.
“We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population
of Internet users in different countries. The growth of 132 per cent in
India has been higher than many other countries, including home market
in US.
The penetration rate in India was estimated to be 20-30 per
cent,” Facebook stated.
In November 2010, Indonesia surpassed the UK to become the second
largest nation on Facebook users, after the U.S. Now, India has
dethroned Indonesia from the second position.
According to Forbes,
India has a total of 43,497,980 Facebook users compared to 43,060,360
in Indonesia, as of February 1 2012. The growth has been phenomenal over
the last one year. On January 1, 2011, India had a total of 16,915,900
Facebook users and the total exceeded by 144%, by the end of 2011.
Despite gaining huge popularity in India, there are several obstacles
ahead of Facebook, as the social networking giant gears up to expand
its presence in India. Facebook’s growth in India may be held back,
owing to the censorship laws and court cases.
The Delhi High Court has
ordered Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other Internet companies to remove
material considered offensive. Legal sources point out that the case has
a good chance of being taken to the Supreme Court, and if the court
order is upheld, Facebook, Google and others would be forced to closely
monitor content on their site.
