How Facebook will improve one of its most 'powerful' products
But she knew very few other Indian women who wanted to ride with her.
"I realized that there was a lack of women bikers and the very few who existed were treated with hardly any respect," she told Business Insider via email.
"There were many women who wanted to start riding bikes but had to face denials from home and from peers - especially men who said that this was not a place for women."
So, in 2011, she started the "Bikerni" Facebook Group to try to unite Indian motorcyclists already out there and inspire others. It has since swelled from 11 members to nearly 1,000 "free-spirited women who are afraid of nothing, are full of confidence and ride together to far off places."
Pateole's story highlights one of the many unexpected ways in which people are using Groups, which is one of Facebook's most-used standalone products. With more than one billion monthly users, it's more popular than either Messenger or Instagram (chat app WhatsApp also has 1 billion MAUs). Group members make more than 10 billion comments and they "like" 25 billion posts or photos each month.
A huge range of uses
When the social network first launched Groups, people treated them more like bumper stickers. You'd join a group like "I'm really ticklish" or "I love the sound of crunching leaves." Since the company relaunched the product in 2010, though, it has evolved into a tool for communication, event planning, and support.
Facebook Groups product manager Alex Deve tells Business Insider that he's stunned on a daily basis by the wide range of communities out there. Personally, he has recently used Groups to plan a trip to Jazzfest with his friends (they particularly appreciated the polls tool to pick restaurants and hotels) and to avoid email when communicating with his direct reports at Facebook. But he's seen Groups uniting people suffering from rare diseases, helping coordinate community meal donations, and to let people swap theories about the TV show "Making a Murderer." People use Groups with people they know as well as complete strangers. Facebook exec Chris Cox recently said that Groups have become "like Craigslist" in Indonesia.
"Every day when I come to work, I try to find one Group that is really meaningful," Neve says. "Every day you can find something cool."
Improving discovery