Facebook Outlines Ongoing Efforts to Connect the World, and Boost Platform Usage

Facebook currently has more than 2.3 billion users, which is over half of the globally connected population (4.2b). That means that the majority of people who are willing and able to use Facebook currently are already doing so - so how does The Social Network continue to expand, and add more users, as it gets ever closer to reaching saturation point?

By connecting the almost 50% of the world that's not yet online, adding in new ways for users to not only access the internet, but to also become Facebook users in the process.

That's part of Facebook's broader plan, and its been rolling this out for years through its internet.org initiative and various other projects. And this week Facebook provided an update on its own, and general connectivity efforts, with its 'Inclusive Internet Index' report showing that, while such initiatives are progressing, they have lost some momentum over the past 12 months.

As per the report:

"The percentage of households connected to the Internet globally increased on average to 54.8% from 53.1%, a modest improvement of 3.1%. However, in low-income nations, Internet connections improved by a mere 0.8% on average. This stands in marked contrast to 2018, when this group saw 65.1% growth."

Despite the efforts of Facebook, and other tech organizations, to connect more regions, progress is losing momentum, due to a range of different factors. 

For example, while mobile broadband subscriptions increased slightly this year, the cost of prepaid data plans increased in many regions, with providers looking to generate more ongoing revenue by signing users up to ongoing contracts. That's slowed momentum on overall connection - which, as you can see from the above chart, has had the most significant impact on new take-up in lower-income regions.

Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-outlines-ongoing-efforts-to-connect-the-world-and-boost-platform/549786/

Original source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/