Facebook & India

This is a statistical post, which collates data from various blog-posts, press-releases and news sites. The objective is to analyze the usage trends for one of the biggest sites on the Internet – Facebook and world’s second most populous country – India.

India has always been a vital country for Facebook’s growth plans. 8 million Indians are connecting on Facebook with their friends, family, and other people they know, both within India and around the globe.

Last month Facebook had announced the opening of their India office in Hyderabad. The critical aspect is that when it comes to India, there is a lot being said about the phenomenal growth demonstrated by us as a nation. However, by and large there is dearth of qualitative data which can be used by decision makers in the long run.

Some pointers

1. YOY Growth – No. of Facebook users in India have grown from 1,561,000 in March 2009 to 7,809,800 in March 2010 marking an astronomical 400% rise.
2. Monthly Growth – From February 2010 to March 2010, Facebook witnessed an 11.9% growth in India. (Numbers up from 6,342,800 in February 2010 to 7,095,760 in March 2010).
3. Drop in an Ocean: These numbers at a global level constitute 2% of Facebook’s entire user-base approximately. (India’s 8 million is 2% of Facebook’s global user-base of 400 million).
4. Facebakers.com: Additionally, a website called Facebakers.com presents the number of users on Facebook in India as 8,702,700. This website claims to be updated daily and that is why the numbers are higher than Nick Burcher’s study. The break-up has been made as follows: Number of male users on Facebook in India: 5,889,740 and Number of female users on Facebook in India: 2,589,600.
5. Male Domination: As the website puts it 69% males access Facebook in India and 31% females access Facebook. 47% users in the (18-24) age bracket accesss Facebook and 31% users in the (25-34) access Facebook.
6. Interestingly, according to Facebakers.com Facebook’s overall penetration in India is 0.76 % and the overall online penetration in India is 10.74 %.
7. Californication: Number of Facebook users in California are 13,531, 540 almost 5 million more than India’s 8,702,700

India Facebook Statistics Age Graph (via Facebakers.com)

What are the reasons that can be attributed towards Facebook’s phenomenal rise and Orkut’s epic fall? For how long do you think will this growth trend continue?

NOTE: This data has been referenced from various websites on the Internet and might not necessarily indicate the actual numbers.

Cross-posted at Iffort’s Blog