CEO of Jana predicts it will happen in a matter of months.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A top social media analyst has predicted that India will overtake the US as the largest market in the world for social media giant Facebook, saying that India’s ascension to the top spot will occur in only a matter of months.
Nathan Eagle, the co-founder and CEO of social marketing and research firm Jana, made the announcement at the 2013 Paley International Council (IC) Summit, an annual event put on by The Paley Center for Media in New York City.
Pointing to the number of users Facebook has in its top 10 countries, Eagle predicted that the relatively small gap between the US and India – 146.8 million users versus 114.8 million, respectively – would be closed soon because India towers over the US in its “year-over-year” (YOY) subscription numbers.
The YOY numbers indicate how many new users open up Facebook accounts each year. While the US lists only 5.2 million new users per annum, India boasts a huge 36.7 million, over seven times as many as the US. In terms of growth percentage, India is performing at 47% per year, compared to just 3.7% for the US.
Both countries are head and shoulders above the rest. The number three country on the list, Brazil, has only 69 million Facebook users, a difference of just fewer than 46 million from India, with a YOY of 36.7 million. Indonesia is in fourth place, with 63.2 million users and a YOY of 14 million, and Mexico is number five with 35.7 million users and a YOY of just 6.5 million.
Eagle also predicted that by 2015, the majority of Facebook’s revenue would come from emerging markets like India, indicating that the company’s recent dedication to expanding into emerging markets is yielding dividends.
Eagle is an alumnus of Stanford University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in management science and engineering, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his Ph.D. He began Jana in 2009, a company which collects mobile phone usage information for service providers; as of 2011, it operates in almost 50 countries worldwide.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com