Facebook's FbStart Gives Benefits of Over $20 Million to Indian Developers

FbStart, Facebook's global programme to help early stage mobile startups build and grow their apps announced that it had given benefits valued at $20 million (roughly Rs. 128 crores) to Indian developers at the Bangalore leg of their world tour on Tuesday.

"As Facebook's suite of apps, tools and services become more ubiquitous around the globe, we see the developer, the entrepreneur ecosystem follow suit too. One of the surprising statistics is that over 70 percent of Facebook developers are located outside the United States." said Ime Archibong, Strategic Partnerships Director at Facebook. India continues to be massively important for Facebook, he said, as it's the second largest developer ecosystem outside the US.

Even outside the developer ecosystem, India remains an important space for Facebook, Archibong said, stating that 125 million people visiting the service monthly, accounting for over 45 percent of Internet users in India. Facebook has 59 million visitors from India every day, with over 53 million people coming online through the mobile app daily.

The FbStart event, held earlier this month in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, connects with developers across the world and gives them tips to grow their businesses and reach more people through Facebook's tools and services.

The free year-long programme provides mentorship and access to tools depending on the scale of the startup. For companies which have a product out already, Facebook provides a package of tools and services worth $80,000 (roughly Rs. 51,00,000) ranging from access to tools like Adobe Photoshop, to seats on Blue Jeans to run virtual meetings. For bootstrapped folks that are just getting started, Facebook offers a $30,000 package which includes access to free Facebook ad credits.

Asia has over 1,000 members in the FbStart programme, and $50 million (roughly Rs. 321 crores) in benefits were distributed to Asia Pacific startups since its launch in 2014.

Archibong cited some examples of Indian app developers growing with FbStart. Samosa, an Android app which offers a curated collection of shareable clips was able to power their backend through Facebook's Parse SDK, which lets developers add push notifications and social integration.

Cardback, a Delhi-based app that helps credit card and wallet users identify their best ways to pay and maximize their rewards and savings was able to use Facebook ad credits to increase the number of people installing their app by 5x in the past six months, with 50 percent of people coming to their app through Facebook ads, the company said.

More developers are building apps with Facebook in India than any other country outside the US and more than 75 percent of top-grossing apps in India are integrated with Facebook.

Archibong added that with programmes like FbStart and Internet.org opening Facebook's platforms to developers, the firm is seeking to help build better mobile experiences that demonstrate the power of Internet.