Facebook ‘missed call’ service coming to SA
Facebook is currently testing a new advertising program in India which enables mobile users to place a ‘missed call’ with advertisers on the social media platform from their mobile device.
And if successful, the social media company says it plans to expand the service to other countries, including South Africa.
Last month, Facebook hinted that it may open an office in South Africa, as it currently operates out of Dubai for the region.
The group said on its blog page that with mobile communications in high-growth countries, necessity often breeds creativity. In India, for example, there is a “missed call” behavior that started as a workaround for the high cost of voice calls, it said.
“We’re testing an ad unit in India that builds on this behavior. When a person sees an ad on Facebook they can place a “missed call” by clicking the ad from their mobile device.”
“In the return call, the person receives valuable content, such as music, cricket scores or celebrity messages, alongside a brand message from the advertiser — all without using airtime or data,” Facebook said.
Facebook noted that roughly 7 out of every 10 people in the world – many in high-growth countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Nigeria – use feature phones to access the Internet.
“In many countries, a majority of those people experience Facebook on a feature phone: in India 66%, in Indonesia 71% and in South Africa 68%,” it said.
It said that in the past year, its teams in the US and on the ground in Brazil, Indonesia, India, Turkey and South Africa have worked to understand how people connect on all devices, and on all connections, from 2G in rural parts of the world to higher-speed data networks in expanding urban centers.
“We’ve used this feedback to create better mobile experiences on Facebook, as well as ad products that are better suited to the needs of people and advertisers in high-growth countries,” Facebook said.
It said that it has seen positive results in early tests with advertisers like Garnier Men and our partner ZipDial, “and plan to scale this product in the coming months with additional partners and markets”.
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