Mobile helps Facebook cross 100 million users milestone in Africa
Facebook’s focus on high growth markets has reached a significant milestone in Africa. As of June 2014, over 100 million people are coming to the social network every month, across the African continent, with over 80 per cent on mobile.
As in all corners of the globe, people in African countries use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them. With the dramatic shift to mobile happening in high-growth countries, this transition means connectedness — to people, organisations, businesses (and customers) around the world.
For brands, the ability to interact with people on their terms, on mobile, translates to a new opportunity to bring value to both people and advertisers.”In Africa, we are seeing explosive growth and incredible momentum across the region. At the same time, when you look at the staggering cost of connectivity in many countries, mobile services need to deliver maximum utility on the biggest range of devices and consume the smallest amount of data, which is exactly what Facebook provides,” explains Rob Norman, Chief Digital Officer of Global GroupM.
Facebook has been crafting solutions specifically for high-growth markets. From testing new ad units based on how people connect with each other, to enabling advertisers to customise campaigns for people depending on their device and connection speeds, Facebook is constantly experimenting. Some of its key partners in these endeavours are companies such as Unilever that have pushed the envelope in connecting with consumers in a digital world.
“At Unilever we believe in putting people first. It’s our mission to connect our brands with the people we serve in order to help improve people’s health and well-being and enhance livelihoods. And we have found in Africa the best way to engage the people we serve is through mobile,” commented Jay Altschuler, Director of Global Media at Unilever.
