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 each 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 inner worker discussion board. The research, 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 apprehensive about their security and privateness, based on the Meta analysis, which hasn’t been beforehand reported.

“Concerns about content safety and unwanted contact impede women’s FB use,” mentioned the research, reviewed by Reuters, because it detailed the platform’s predominant 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 limitations and a scarcity of attraction amongst web customers searching for video content material, based on the analysis, which was primarily based on surveys of tens of 1000’s of individuals in addition to inner consumer information.

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

A Meta spokesperson, contacted concerning the research, mentioned the corporate repeatedly invested in inner analysis to higher perceive the worth its merchandise present and assist establish 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 mentioned 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 mentioned Facebook customers in India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam represented the highest three sources of development in each 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 buyers and analysts who worry its development in probably high-growth creating markets is beginning to wane.

“India contains more FB users than any other country,” mentioned the analysis, which pegged the quantity at virtually 450 million as of November, after fast 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 does not permit FB

The inner research, 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 mentioned {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,” mentioned the research, including that on-line security considerations 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 general 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 mentioned that they had seen nudity up to now week, for instance, and underneath 20 p.c in Indonesia, based on a survey performed in August 2021.

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

Family disapproval – “Family doesn’t allow FB” – was a serious purpose cited by ladies for not utilizing Facebook, the research discovered.

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

They mentioned that since 2016, Meta had quadrupled the scale of the worldwide crew 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 ladies customers, one analysis slide confirmed an image of an Indian girl strolling on a road sporting a saree with which she coated her head and face, a practice widespread in lots of components of India.

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

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

By June 2021, the characteristic had been adopted by 34 p.c of ladies customers in India, mentioned the inner report, however extra work was wanted, with “bold product changes”, to deal with 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 mentioned it had a crew of individuals focusing “just on making sure we are keeping women safe”, utilizing know-how instruments to take away content material deemed unsafe.

The Meta spokesperson mentioned it had launched a Women’s Safety Hub and different privateness options resembling a profanity filter to assist feminine customers in India keep secure 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 degree off final yr, based on inner analysis. The platform’s predominant attraction 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 price 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, based on one inner slide that illustrated the slowdown graphically.

By November, Facebook’s consumer base in India was 447 million sturdy, 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 sturdy growth in previous years. In 2014, the platform had fewer than 100 million customers in India, a quantity that doubled by 2017, the analysis mentioned.

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

Lower-educated customers are one other group that’s underrepresented on Facebook, based on 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 research discovered.

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