THE RECENT FIASCO OVER a data breach at social media behemoth Facebook Inc is unlikely to make a dent in its soaring popularity in India, which according to data platform Statista is also its largest market in terms of user base. Lack of a credible alternative and awareness about data safety and security among India’s populace will save the day for Facebook in the country, say experts and analysts.
On March 16, it came to light that Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based data analytics company that worked on Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign in the US, harvested the personal information of 50 million users in America. The data was analysed and used for targeted messaging, which is believed to have contributed to Trump’s victory in 2016.Users have taken strong exception to the leak and the chorus against Facebook has grown stronger with the likes of WhatsApp founder Brian Acton joining a ‘Delete Facebook’ campaign. WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging apps with approximately 1.5 billion users globally until December 2017, was bought by Facebook for a whopping $19 billion in 2014.
Analysts believe that the aftershocks are unlikely to be felt in India, home to about 250 million Facebook users, higher than its home turf, the US. “There can be an immediate knee-jerk reaction, but in the long term, nothing much is likely to happen because there is no credible alternative to Facebook in India,” says Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder and chief executive, Greyhound Research.
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