 "'Facebook for Every Phone', the feature phone app, now has 100 million users")
Social networking giant Facebook has announced that its “Every Phone” app for feature phones is now seeing more than 100 million users each month. The app enables Facebook access on mobile to those who do not possess smartphones.
In a blog post announcing the milestone, Ran Makavy, Growth Manager for Facebook stated that this important figure comes even as Facebook is following its mission to make the world more open and connected, regardless of the mobile device a user owns. Developing markets like Indonesia, the Philippines and India have especially benefited from the Facebook for Every Phone app.
The Facebook for Every Phone application is powered by technology developed by Snaptu, an Israel-based mobile platform co-founded by Makavy in 2007. Facebook had acquired Snaptu in 2011 and the platform has been used ever since to ensure the social networking website is accessible to low-end devices as well.
Facebook for Every Phone, literally
Users of Facebook for Every Phone can access Facebook without using as much data as most other Java apps and mobile sites. The technology has ensured that about 3,000 devices from most manufacturers around the world over can use the app natively. The team has even partnered with service providers and mobile operators around the world to make sure the website is either free to access or is available at discounted rates for users.
India has especially benefited from the Facebook for Every Phone programme. With the large market the social networking platform has here, it made sense for the company to partner with telecom giants like Airtel to provide free access to the website. In January this year, Bharti Airtel had announced that it was providing its prepaid mobile customers with free access to the Facebook mobile app for up to 500MB of monthly usage data. Such partnerships with mobile companies in developing markets has been instrumental in ensuring that the two year old feature phone app grows its user base exponentially.
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