Facebook user base soars to 50 mn in India

Facebook director most Indian users access the website on mobile

Facebook has said its user base in India has grown from 8 million in 2010 to 50 million now and most of the people access the site through mobile phones, prompting it to rethink its business model.

While for other countries it was the desktop which was first used to get in to the portal, in case of India it was the mobile phone, said Kirthiga Reddy, Facebook Director - online operations and head of office - India.

Most of the people in the US started on desktop and moved to mobile, she said, adding that India is causing the company to rethink its model.

"Because many people are going to Facebook first on mobile and they might never go to desktop again," Reddy said.

The situation has prompted Facebook to come out with many innovations so that the site can be accessed through any mobile phone, she added.

"Facebook had a user-base of 8 million when it started its office in India in 2010. It has grown to 50 million users since then," Reddy said, adding that currently translation in India is available in eight languages.

"Globally, we have many users that contributed for translation of local languages. Translate tool is open for a few other languages," she said.

Replying to a query, she said as per studies children below 13 tend to access Facebook when their parents are using the site.

"Our policy is that children below 13 years of age are not allowed...We have taken that very seriously. Anytime someone is being reported being under 13 (of age), we immediately look into that and take action. There is a lot of education and initiatives we engage in," she added.

According to the information available in Facebook official site, it had 901 million active users at the end of March 2012, and approximately 80% of these monthly active users were outside the US and Canada.

Facebook is available in more than 70 languages.