Social media giant Facebook faces advertising struggles in India, in an attempt to get revenue boosts in the 2nd biggest market.
Voanews.com reported on the company's take on getting quite a challenge with convincing advertisers of the said country. With over 132 million Facebook users in India alone, compared to its 193 million US users, India is considered equally vital to the social media giant's globalization efforts.
Still on the same article, Neil Shah, an analyst for Counterpoint Research, says of the hesitancy behind the country's advertising companies as "Advertisers in India are not warmed enough to social media as a concept of marketing." More local advertisers are still expressing their loyalty on television ads than giving social media advertising a try.
Another article on reuters.com mentioned a comparison between Facebook and Google dominating the Indian market. Google still has their search ads more popular than that of Facebook's even though they have a longer tenure already (more than 6 years).
Other locations that Facebook is looking to extend its social networking spread are in the Mexico, Indonesia and Brazilian markets. The world's biggest social network is optimistic and says it has already seen early signs of its efforts that are working. Facebook has unveiled their newest type of ad that is designed specifically for the Indian market as of last year, which is called "click to missed call."
The feature allows users to click a button on a certain ad, which then automatically gives a call to an advertiser. The user can then hang up and the advertiser expectedly calls back with a pre-recorded message. This is to save users from getting charged for that call. Facebook reported Garnier Men to have benefited already from this feature, seeing their online sales double through the "click to missed call" option, according to reuters.com.