Although Facebook’s smartphone apps like Facebook for Android and Facebook for iOS get most of the attention, it’s important to understand that much of Facebook’s mobile penetration, globally, involves a lesser-heralded app – Facebook for Every Phone. And the app, which services over 3,000 types of feature phones across the world just hit a huge milestone.
According to Facebook, Facebook for Every Phone has just crossed the 100 million monthly active users mark.
“This is an important milestone for us. Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected, and Facebook For Every Phone enables people around the globe to connect to the people and things they care about most, no matter what kind of mobile device they use,” says Facebook Growth Manager Ran Makavy. “Today, millions of people in developing markets like India, Indonesia and the Philippines are relying on this technology to connect with Facebook, without having to purchase a smartphone.”
If you think about it, that’s a giant chunk of Facebook’s total monthly active users. Facebook current boasts just over 1.1 billion MAUs, meaning that nearly 10% of all of Facebook’s MAUs access the site via a feature phone app.
Facebook for Every Phone provides most of the features that are necessary to have a full Facebook experience – the news feed, messenger, photos, friend finder, and more. Plus, new users can sign up for an account right from the app. This helps Facebook reach formerly hard-to-reach markets across the globe.
Makavy thanks Facebook’s backend provider, Snaptu:
“Facebook For Every Phone is powered by technology created by Snaptu, an Israel-based mobile platform that I co-founded in 2007. We joined the Facebook Growth Team in California as part of an acquisition in 2011. Our small team relaunched Snaptu as Facebook For Every Phone in July of that same year, and grew the user base to where it is today. Snaptu’s platform uses the power of servers to accelerate and optimize the way mobile apps work, and is the key to providing a great user experience on low-end devices,” he says.
In other Facebook for Every Phone news, the page continues to be the most-liked page on Facebook – and it’s not even close. Facebook for Every Phone currently has nearly 275 million likes – the next closest page has just under 94 million.
