Indonesia Leads Penetration of Global Mobile Facebook Users
Mobile is a key channel for accessing social media platforms in Indonesia and other emerging Asian markets – especially for Facebook.
Nearly 63 million people in Indonesia will access Facebook via their phones at least once per month this year, making it the country with the highest mobile Facebook usage rate worldwide. Taking this into account, it’s clear marketers must place high importance on developing a mobile social strategy in the region.
Research by eMarketer estimates that by 2018, the figure will soar even further to 95 million users, retaining Indonesia’s spot in third place behind India and the U.S. in terms of number of mobile Facebook users.
In percentage terms, 92 percent of Indonesia’s Facebook users will access the site by mobile this year, and by 2018, it will be almost 99 percent – by far the highest concentration globally.
The surge in usage is being led by a young and increasingly mobile population.
“Marketers in Indonesia, especially retailers, should think of a digital campaign that includes mobile and Facebook to reach customers,” says Safitri Sri, project director-chief strategy officer at Telekomunikasi Indonesia.
She adds that the eMarketer results for Indonesia are not surprising given the country’s thriving social media scene and the fact that Facebook is often a default for email. But Sri cautions that brands should back up any mobile strategy with targeted advertising and strong customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Feature phones represent a major access point for Facebook in the Indian and Indonesian markets, many coming with a text-like version of the platform pre-installed.
“The fact that feature phones also make up a significant part of mobile Facebook access is important as well, especially given that some activities that may be relevant for smartphone users in other markets may not be possible through feature phones and that can also limit the user’s ability to interact with certain stimuli,” says Monica Peart, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer.
“There is still room for improvement in terms of getting the feature phone experience up to that which many marketers may be accustomed to through smartphone platforms, and these capabilities are constantly changing,” says Peart.
eMarketer predicts close to 1 billion (70 percent) of Facebook users worldwide will access the social network on a mobile phone at least once each month this year.
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