In a bid to bring more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the platform, Facebook launched the first SME India Council in Asia Pacific. The council — a group of 12 small business owners from different geographies and with varied business objectives — will meet several times a year to share feedback, discuss ideas and work with Facebook to build better ad solutions.
More than 1.99 billion interactions have been made between people and the two million small businesses with Facebook Pages in India. Of the 138 million people on Facebook in India (90 per cent on mobile), more than half of them are connected to at least one small business in the country.
“Mobility is the future of India. We are excited about the tremendous opportunities it creates for people and businesses. The SME India Council is an open forum for local businesses to share feedback with our teams so we can align and continue to develop impactful solutions to grow their business,” shares Kirthiga Reddy, managing director of Facebook India.
The members of the SME India Council include Amruta Walvekar, director, Wrapistry; Anaka Narayanan, director, Brass Tacks; Anitha Nayak, founder, Floured; Gautam Ivatury, co-founder and executive chairman, MeraDoctor; Hema Balakrishnan, founder, Color D Earth; Kalpana Rajesh, director, Pelli Poola Jada; Maya Chandrasekaran, chief of talent, Babajob.com; Nivedha Charles, founder, Pigtails and Ponys; Nivedita Mummadi, co-founder, Dirty Feet; and R. Balakrishnan, co-founder, GIO Adventures, among others.
BRAND BUZZ
Hike On A HighMobile messaging app Hike Messenger claims its users are exchanging over one billion messages a day, making it about 30 billion messages a month. These figures have grown by 50 per cent since August when Hike registered 20 billion exchanges a day. The app presently has over 70 million users in the country.
The company says that on average users spend over 140 minutes a week using the messenger, with 90 per cent of its users being under the age of 25 and residing in India.
DIG THE DATAOn TopAirbnb has been voted the best place to work in 2016, in a survey conducted by Glassdoor. The companies that took up the next three spots were Bain & Co., Guidewire and Hubspot. Facebook, which ranked fifth this year, moved up eight spots on the list of from No. 13 in 2015. While Google, last year’s topper, plummeted to No. 8 in 2016.
Tweets On ShowsAccording to a report from Nielsen, which analysed TV-related tweet impressions for 96 fall television shows, live tweeting accounted for as much as 57 per cent of the weekly Twitter TV impressions.
LEADER Kiran Mazumdar Shaw @kiranshaw
Chairman and managing director of Biocon“Smart cities start with smart slums- there should b greater investment n focus on making our slums smart as a true inclusive model”
Bill Gates
@BillGates Founder, Microsoft“Cheap, clean energy will help us fight poverty & climate change. That’s why I’m investing in energy innovations”
(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 28-12-2015)
