There are more people in India who access their Facebook accounts on their mobiles than on their desktops. And most of the regional language users access Facebook on their mobiles.

“Most of the 50 million Facebook users are on mobile. Realising this, we have launched Facebook (application) for every phone,” Ms Kirthiga Reddy, Director (Online Operations) of India, said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an Indo-American Chamber of Commerce meet here on Tuesday, she said the social networking firm started translation tool in some Indian languages such as Telugu and Marathi, realising the growing popularity of the site in the local languages.

The number of users grew to 50 million from 8 million when the US firm opened its operations in India. Ms Kirthiga refused to comment on the number of staff working for it in India.

Ad support

She said the response from Indian advertisers on the site has been good. Some big, medium and small firms are advertising significantly in order to use the huge user base. “They are communicating with real people who are connecting with their friends,” she said.

She claimed that Facebook had 900 billion friendship connections globally.

Refuting the claims that interest on social networking sites is waning, she said the Facebook experience disproved these claims. “We don’t see that (slackened interest). Globally, half of the users come to the site every single day. They are active users,” she said.

On the issue of safety and minors opening Facebook accounts, she said the company’s policy is not to allow people under 13. “We look into (violations) and take right action to check this. It requires a lot of education to sensitise the parents and children,” she said.

kurumanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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