India May Become No. 2 Facebook Market Soon

India is on its way to become Facebook's second biggest market across the globe by next year. According to Nielsen Co., India will have more than 50 million users by next year. The US, however, remains the top market for Facebook. According to a Bloomberg report, companies including Pepsi Co. are boosting Internet advertising to reach the 352 million children under age 15 who are coming online. Tarun Abhichandani, group business director at IMRB International, part of WPP Group, said, "India has a young demographic, and it's social networking that brings young Indians online."

According to the statistics released by socialbakers.com, the number of active accounts in India jumped 85 per cent to 32 million this year. Socialbakers.com tracks user data at the Palo Alto, California-based company.

Such figures make India the world's third-biggest behind the 153 million in the US and 39.2 million in Indonesia. In addition, Gartner says, mobile handset sales in the country will surpass 206 million units annually in 2014 from 175.9 million last year.

Pepsi and Viacom's MTV have been quick to tap the popularity of Facebook in India through promotions and contests.

Their Indian pages have garnered 1.4 million and 2.9 million "likes," respectively. As per a Nielson report, "Indians are interested in brands that communicate with them using social media; 60 per cent of Indian social-media users are open to being approached by brands.

Facebook opened an office in Hyderabad in September to serve users, advertisers and developers in the country and around the world, spokeswoman Kumiko Hidaka wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg.