In fact, this seems to be a new marketing strategy adopted by social networking giant to attract more users in India. But the offer is apparently only available through a promotional link: http://m.facebook.com/tt.
This latest strategy was first spotted by Plugged.in, users have to visit the site and register for the free talktime. The social giant is also offering the same talk time if anyone signs up via your referral.
However, the promotional scheme, which seems to have gone live around ten days ago, does not seem like a potent strategy and will only add to more fake profiles on the social network. But of course, Facebook would gain user numbers in the process, but Wall Street is not likely to be fooled by a bunch of inactive accounts in India, so any raw gains would only be temporary.
Of course, a dollar or two bonuses would not likely put much of a dent in Facebook’s revenue, but scammers can rise to take advantage of this method. Mobile customers in markets like India often have multiple SIM cards, and since this offer is pretty tempting, so it is possible that fake accounts could proliferate simply because of the credits.
On the other hand, the company seems to be very apprehensive about fake profiles and had recently reported the number to be as high as 83 million and seemingly, now it is launching offers which are likely to bring in more fake users rather than genuine ones.
Facebook is already massive popular in India. Also, India ranks as the second largest Facebook population. However, the social network aims to expand its reach in the country, especially by wooing the mobile users. A top Facebook official recently revealed that number of the Indian users accessing Facebook via mobile phones has significantly increased over the years.
More so, the social networking giant recently topped a list as the most valuable brand in the world, when news media, social media and Twitter are considered. Apart from this, earlier this month, Facebook revealed that it had officially crossed 1 billion monthly active users mark and is unlikely to see subscriber growth in developed countries, where it has hit saturation levels.
Now Asia is believed to be best bet from countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico. Already, almost 60 percent of Facebook users access the network from their mobile devices and India ranks among the highest mobile users. With the second largest mobile market and new growth coming from people whose first brush with the Internet is on a mobile phone than a PC, it is a smart move by Facebook to entice new users to join.