Facebook’s new priority in India – Groups

Social networking giant, Facebook says over 80 million people in India use Facebook Groups each month. And as the number grows Groups continues to be a huge priority for the social media company. India is the also the third country where Facebook announced the Groups Discover feature after US and UK. Facebook is hoping Groups Discover will help people find Facebook groups based on a particular topic like say food or sports and help users stay in touch with family, collaborate on projects, plan trips and offer support to friends. Globally, more than 1 billion people use Facebook Groups every month and the product has grown since it was launched in 2010.

Facebook has over 155 million monthly active users in India with over 77 million Daily Active Users. And sees India as a key market for Groups as it sees many users engage in topics such as Parenting, Schools, Food and Sports. Facebook says that very often the reason people turn to Groups on Facebook is mainly because they’re looking for advice, for suggestions from similar people, or others who might be in a similar situation. Adit Vaidya, Facebook Product Manager for Groups says “With Groups, we make it easy for you to build a space for important groups of people in your life—your family, your soccer team, your book club and bring like-minded people together to learn, support or rally around a common bond or interest.”

Vaidya also announced the roll-out of Groups Discover to users in India, a feature where users can browse groups by category and get recommendations based on their friends, location and interests. Discover offers 25 different categories such as parenting, sports, food, buy & sell, networking, animals & pets, hobby & leisure, support & comfort and travel. Each topic page highlights the top suggested Groups based on popularity and who you may already know that’s a member.

Facebook has worked on the overall experience of Group so now it is possible for users to reply directly to specific comments on a post in Groups so people can navigate comments more easily and have deeper conversations and can more easily drag and drop in files to share more information within the group. Additionally, Groups has rolled out Facebook Live in Groups and this allows one to broadcast live to just the people in a particular Facebook Group.

Image Source: Reuters