Facebook India Growth Obstacles Said to Include Nude Content, Fewer Women

On Feb. 2, when Meta Platforms reported Facebook’s first-ever quarterly drop in every day customers, its finance chief recognized increased cellular information prices as a singular impediment slowing development in India, its largest market.

On the identical day, the US tech group posted the findings of its personal analysis into Facebook’s enterprise in India on an inside worker discussion board. The examine, performed over the 2 years to the top of 2021, recognized completely different issues.

Many ladies have shunned the male-dominated social community as a result of they’re frightened about their security and privateness, in keeping with the Meta analysis, which hasn’t been beforehand reported.

“Concerns about content safety and unwanted contact impede women’s FB use,” stated the examine, reviewed by Reuters, because it detailed the platform’s most important challenges.

“Meta cannot succeed in India while leaving women behind.”

Other obstacles included nudity content material, the perceived complexity of its app design, native language and literacy boundaries and an absence of enchantment amongst web customers searching for video content material, in keeping with the analysis, which was primarily based on surveys of tens of hundreds of individuals in addition to inside consumer information.

Facebook’s development started plateauing final yr, when it added a number of million customers within the area of six months within the nation of about 1.4 billion individuals, considerably lagging sister apps WhatsApp and Instagram, in keeping with the report, which famous: “FB has grown more slowly than the internet and other apps.”

A Meta spokesperson, contacted in regards to the examine, stated the corporate usually invested in inside analysis to higher perceive the worth its merchandise present and assist determine methods to enhance.

“But it’s misleading to characterize 7-month-old research as an accurate or comprehensive representation of the state of our business in India,” they added.

Nonetheless, the principle Indian points detailed within the analysis weren’t cited by Meta’s chief monetary officer, Dave Wehner, on a Feb. 2 name with analysts to debate outcomes for the ultimate quarter of 2021.

Wehner stated Facebook’s consumer development in Asia-Pacific and another areas have been hit by competitors, plus in contrast with prior quarters when COVID resurgences aided consumer engagement. He recognized increased cellular information prices as a “unique” headwind for India.

Asked why the obstacles to development recognized by Wehner have been completely different from these recognized within the analysis, the spokesperson pointed to a Meta submitting in April, throughout its first-quarter earnings, the place it stated Facebook customers in India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam represented the highest three sources of development in every day energetic customers in March versus a yr earlier than.

Facebook’s fortunes in India have broad implications for Meta, which has misplaced about half of its worth this yr amid a broader tech sell-off and faces scrutiny from traders and analysts who worry its development in probably high-growth growing markets is beginning to wane.

“India contains more FB users than any other country,” stated the analysis, which pegged the quantity at nearly 450 million as of November, after speedy development over a lot of the previous decade.

“Teams across the company should explicitly consider their strategic position and growth opportunities in India. Outcomes in India could drive global results.”

Family would not enable FB

The inside examine, a “high-level overview of the growth trends” in India, was detailed in a presentation meant to assist Facebook’s researchers and product groups. It stated {that a} key drawback Facebook had tried to repair for years in India, with restricted success, was associated to “gender imbalance”.

Men accounted for 75 p.c of Facebook’s month-to-month energetic customers in India final yr. That in contrast with 62 p.c of web customers extra broadly in early 2020, the researchers discovered.

“While there is a gender imbalance in internet use across India, the imbalance among Facebook users is even more pronounced,” stated the examine, including that on-line security issues and societal pressures have been among the many causes deterring ladies from the platform.

The researchers discovered that 79 p.c of feminine Facebook customers had “expressed concern about content/photo misuse”, whereas 20-30 p.c of total customers have been estimated to have seen nudity on the platform throughout the final seven days within the largely conservative nation.

India ranked highest globally on the latter metric; round 10 p.c of customers surveyed within the United States and Brazil stated they’d seen nudity prior to now week, for instance, and underneath 20 p.c in Indonesia, in keeping with a survey performed in August 2021.

“Negative content is more prevalent in India than other countries,” stated the interior report.

Family disapproval – “Family doesn’t allow FB” – was a significant cause cited by ladies for not utilizing Facebook, the examine discovered.

The Meta spokesperson stated the net gender imbalance was an industry-wide drawback and never particular to its platforms.

They stated that since 2016, Meta had quadrupled the dimensions of the worldwide staff engaged on security and safety to over 40,000, and that between January and April this yr, greater than 97 p.c of grownup nudity and sexual exercise content material was eliminated earlier than somebody reported it.

Where do you reside?

Depicting the struggles of girls customers, one analysis slide confirmed an image of an Indian lady strolling on a avenue carrying a saree with which she lined her head and face, a convention widespread in lots of elements of India.

Next to this picture was the account of a lady who stated she had acquired 367 buddy requests from strangers, with a string of feedback on pictures like “very beautiful”, “where do you live”, and “you look good”.

The feedback stopped after she used the “locked profile” function, in keeping with the girl cited, referring to an choice Facebook launched in 2020 in India permitting customers to limit viewing of images and posts to non-friends.

By June 2021, the function had been adopted by 34 p.c of girls customers in India, stated the interior report, however extra work was wanted, with “bold product changes”, to handle the issue of low uptake of Facebook amongst ladies.

Facebook has confronted criticism globally from on-line security campaigners for not doing sufficient to safeguard ladies from bullying or harassment. In 2019, the platform stated it had a staff of individuals focusing “just on making sure we are keeping women safe”, utilizing expertise instruments to take away content material deemed unsafe.

The Meta spokesperson stated it had launched a Women’s Safety Hub and different privateness options corresponding to a profanity filter to assist feminine customers in India keep protected on-line. Since 2021, greater than 45 p.c of Facebook Groups in India associated to entrepreneurship have been created by ladies, Meta added.

WhatsApp grabs crown

Facebook’s development in India started to stage off final yr, in keeping with inside analysis. The platform’s most important enchantment has been to attach with family and friends, however non-Facebook customers have been primarily now utilizing the web to see footage and movies, the analysis famous.

Its annualised development fee primarily based on May-October 2021 confirmed it was including simply 6.6 million customers per yr, versus WhatsApp’s 71 million and Instagram’s 128 million, in keeping with one inside slide that illustrated the slowdown graphically.

By November, Facebook’s consumer base in India was 447 million robust, lagging behind its Meta sister apps. WhatsApp – which Facebook acquired in 2014 – had 563 million Indian customers. Instagram, purchased in 2012, had 309 million.

The slowdown stands in distinction to Facebook’s robust enlargement in previous years. In 2014, the platform had fewer than 100 million customers in India, a quantity that doubled by 2017, the analysis stated.

The Meta spokesperson declined to touch upon the consumer numbers, saying it did not disclose country-specific information. They stated the corporate was “definitely increasing the prominence of video” on Facebook.

Lower-educated customers are one other group that’s underrepresented on Facebook, in keeping with the analysis. The platform confronted challenges in assembly the demand for content material in India’s many native languages, whereas many individuals cited the app’s complexity and lack of tutorials as deterrents.

Between 2017 and 2020, India’s month-to-month on-line customers as a share of the inhabitants doubled, boosted by cheaper information plans, however the share of web customers who reported they used Facebook declined throughout that interval, the examine discovered.

“India is now the country with more Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts than any other country in the world,” stated an inside submit accompanying the report. “But continued growth in India faces many challenges.”