Thank-You Mr. Zuckerberg India says “Like”

Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, recently blogged when the site crossed the 500 million users, “I could have never imagined all the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started six years ago”. Indeed, we all know the innovative ways by which world is using Facebook, but it’s really fascinating to see Indian users and businesses utilizing the social networking giant in more than one way.

Why should I care about Indian users on Facebook?

20.4 million unique users visit Facebook’s India site every month

12 million Indians use it for commercial purposes

16 million Indian users connect to Facebook from their homes

19 million Indian users upload photos on Facebook every month

15 minutes is the average time Indian users spend on every visit to Facebook

So what is the big deal with numbers we all know that Facebook is popular in India, right? True, but you might be in for a surprise (atleast I was!) by exploring the different ways people use it commercially.

Finance a movie:

“I AM” an Indian movie scheduled to be released in October this year is financed by users on Facebook. No they are not friends of Onir and Suri, the producers of the movie, but these are users who responded to their request to finance the film. Onir uses Facebook for about 2 hours a day and realized during one of his “sessions” that people are many Facebook users are willing to contribute for financing a movie! So he started the group and collected around Rs. 90 lakh from 400-odd Facebook users, all of them are co-owners of film and will get a share of profits. Wait there is more, when the film owners re-requested money after exceeding the budget, these users were happy to invest Rs.5 lakh more.

Onir’s reaction: “It’s going to be hard to make movies the traditional way after this kind of film-making”.

Talk about democracy in India!

This one if for your teeth:

Dr Jaradi, director of Dentzz Dental Care Centres used Facebook to attract young Indians towards cosmetic dentistry. Who would subscribe to that kind of page on Facebook right? Well… 19000 members currently are on the Facebook page of the clinic and are ready to don a perfect smile!

Sell your doughnuts:

“Mad over Donuts” owner Lokesh Bharwani also capitalized on the growing usage of Facebook for the strategy of his company. The fan page of “Mad over Donuts” has more than 36000 fans actively giving out suggestions for menus and outlets locations. Mr. Bharwani plans next is to launch an application to engage more consumers.

You gonna love this!:

All-right critics of government workers, take this: Delhi Traffic Police has a Facebook page with more than 16,000 followers who actively provide the cops with updates about traffic woes around the city, as well as report policemen who demand bribes(although reporting ones who don’t take bribe would be easier I guess!). Hold on, the suggestions and feedback are actually *answered* by a representative of the Delhi Traffic Police! That’s insanely awesome!!!

There are other innovative usages as well like Dogsvilla, a platform for exchanging information about pets and getting one as well. But you get the picture

I never expected to see these totally different approaches of marketing, setting up business, financing and thousands of other business solutions via Facebook.

But since I am a human (READ: Insatiable) I want more and more such solutions to make India prosper and support all possible big corporations and SMEs.

Can Facebook help us clear the traffic jams, provide clean sanitation and clear our politician’s conscious? Guess God has to setup a Facebook page for that!

What innovative ways are you looking forward to on Facebook?

Blessed was the day when Mr. Zuckerberg (about my age by the way!) decided to start Facebook.

Thank-You Mr. Zuckerberg, India says “Like”.