Social networking giant Facebook deeply cares about India as the company focuses on building for the next billion people coming online, a top Facebook executive said on Thursday.

“We are committed to learning about how people everywhere use our product, and making sure Facebook works for them. Connecting the next billion people on Facebook means understanding these differences and building better experiences to work on all connections, devices, and regions,” Adam Mosseri, Vice President of Product at Facebook, told reporters at the company’s India office.

Facebook brings together the world’s largest community of sports fans

In India, there are 155 million monthly active users, 77 million daily active users, 147 million Mobile monthly active users and 73 million Mobile daily active users. Facebook is available in 12 Indian languages and daily active users on Facebook in India had grown 22 percent year over year, compared to a 17 percent increase in daily active users on Facebook worldwide.

“Over the past many months, we’ve continued to focus on efforts to improve News Feed for everyone regardless of device or network connection. We are now launching a new architecture so you can see less grey boxes, and more relevant stories quickly, regardless of your network connection,” Mosseri said.

The new architecture of News Feed allows stories to be ranked on the client after being sent from the server. With 1.7 billion people globally and more than 150 million people in India using Facebook monthly, the social media platform provides an essential audience place for content creators.

“We are building fast and immersive media experiences to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time. People around the world are using Facebook to connect with news publishers, video creators, celebrities and sports,” the executive noted.

Facebook brings together the world’s largest community of sports fans.

• 650 million people around the world are connected to at least one sports Page (league, team, athlete, sports media) on Facebook.

Facebook is where the largest real-time social media audience comes together to talk about sports’ biggest moments.

• 277 million people had 1.5 billion interactions on Facebook about the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
• The most-discussed moment in the history of Facebook was a sporting event. During 2014 FIFA World Cup, 350 million people joined the conversation on Facebook, generating 3 billion interactions (posts, comments and likes) related to the tournament.

Facebook is also the largest cricket stadium and year after year , we have found that more and more people are logging on to Facebook to keep abreast of key cricket events.

• This year there was exponential increase in match related content that was created exclusively for Facebook.
• During IPL 2016, over 30 million people generated 360 million Facebook conversations.
• 46 million people interacted on Facebook during this year’s ICC World Twenty 20 2016.
• During Cricket World Cup 2015, 36 million people have generated 341 million interactions between January 1 and February 28.

On Facebook, fans discover rich and immersive video that brings them closer to the sports, athletes and teams they love.

• Innovations such as Facebook Live and Facebook 360 video give fans unprecedented access to the action, taking them on the field and in the locker room, and inviting them to interact directly with their favorite players.
• Before his final race at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Michael Phelps used Facebook Live to answer questions from fans and confirm his retirement from competitive swimming. With nearly 4 million views, it was the most-viewed live broadcast by an athlete during the games.

Facebook helps athletes, teams, leagues and media connect with a global audience of sports fans and achieve their business goals.

• By leveraging Facebook Live and Facebook 360 video, partners can deliver complementary programming for the second screen and expand their reach.
• Facebook helps partners achieve their business goals by growing and engaging their fan base; supporting current revenue drivers such as tune-in, subscriptions, sponsorship and ticket and merchandise sales; and providing new revenue streams such as branded content, Instant Articles and ad breaks in live video.

Tags: Facebook, Facebook 360, Facebook Live, India, Sports