Facebook recently hosted its Open House event where head of Africa, Nunu Ntshingila, outlined how the operations have gone over the last 12 months as well as what the strategy has been. Michael Bratt found out more.
The focus over the past year has been twofold for Facebook on the African continent. Firstly, it deepened its relationships within the African ecosystem. Ntshingila explains:
The second focus for the social media giant’s African division has been its learning agenda. Open House is part and parcel of Facebook’s learning agenda for the company as well as its clients.
“The Open House is basically a metaphor of how consumers and society and our lives are changing. If you just walk through the house, connectivity has changed our lives in a fundamental way and that’s what we’re trying to demonstrate … Connectivity is the single biggest feature of today and will define the world as we move on for the next five years,” Ntshingila said.
She also touched on what Facebook Africa will be focusing on for the next 12 months. There are two areas: firstly insights which, she says, will give the company a better understanding of how consumers are behaving, not just on the social media platform, but also in other areas of their lives. She cites the example of dual screening, saying 66% of people do this, which is going to impact on the attention they pay to a particular medium as well as the creative that advertisers need to deliver.
The second focus for Facebook Africa is creativity. “Creativity will unlock the value of technology,” Ntshingila explains. “Technology on its own is okay, but we absolutely need to use creativity to unlock the value of technology.”
An update on the number of Facebook users was also provided, with the stats reflecting 14 million monthly active users in South Africa, of which more than 90% are on mobile. There are 16 million monthly active users in Nigeria and 5.3 million monthly active users in Kenya.
“It’s about continuing to manage that community and making sure we are bringing the platform, particularly for businesses and making sure that businesses understand how to use the platform for their own growth,” Ntshingila explains.
Comparing Facebook’s African markets with others around the world, Ntshingila indicated that Africa shows some similarities to other countries, but at the same time, has elements that are significantly different. The African Facebook profile is also very young compared to the rest of the world.
“There is technology that we are developing specifically for emerging markets, like Slideshow. But I think if you look at how people are using Facebook in Africa it’s very similar to how people are using Facebook around the world… people have moved from texts; it is becoming much more visual around the world and we’re seeing that in Africa.
“We’re seeing the growth of video, that’s a global growth… and we’re seeing the growth of video in Africa despite some of the challenges we have. There are some things that are absolutely the same and there are certain things where we’ve got to still be careful like issues around affordability and connectivity.”
One of the projects that Facebook is really looking forward to, taking place later this year, is the launch of a satellite over sub-Saharan Africa that will increase the connectivity of the continent. Ntshingila says, “We really are looking forward to that. Anything to assist us with connectivity and affordability is something that we are looking forward to.”
She also touched on challenges she faced moving from an agency environment (she was previously at Ogilvy) to Facebook as well as what she believes she has brought to her new role.
Follow Michael Bratt on Twitter @MichaelBratt8
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