The social network currently boasts 142 million members in the country, with 133 million people accessing it through their mobiles. Consequently, Facebook’s growth in the developing Indian market hinges on the costly mobile data usage tied to its app.
Following in the footsteps of YouTube, which announced its similar “Smart Offline” video downloads program for India last month, Facebook will trial the feature starting from July 11.
To avoid any piracy hurdles that may cause a backlash with media providers, Facebook has locked the downloads option to its app, meaning videos can’t be saved to a device’s library. Users can sync videos to the
“In markets like India, mobile data and connectivity are limited, which can leave people with poor video experiences or no streaming ability at all,” states Facebook in an email announcing the test. “We want to make the video experience on
In June, it was revealed that another Facebook venture aimed at emerging countries was witnessing rapid growth in India, and parts of Africa.
Facebook has previously met with legal obstacles when targeting users in the region. It suffered a major setback when the country banned its free internet tool, Free Basics by
In its place, these data-centric options may help the social network expand as it looks to grow beyond developed countries.
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