FB Home can boost Pinoys’ mobile social media usage

MANILA, Philippines - Just a few days after social networking giant Facebook made it available at the Google Play online store, the new Facebook Home app for Android devices has proven to be as polarizing as it is intriguing.

“Facebook is making an aggressive push to go mobile and it is a move that could impact on how people use their smartphones,” said Smart spokesman Ramon Isberto.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlights Home as a one-stop shop for everything Facebook. With the application installed, Android users get treated to a total FB experience from startup to shutdown.

What makes this possible is Home’s ability to provide a stream of status updates and posts on the smartphone screen and the capability of the app to engage users in real-time instant messaging even while other applications run in the background.

“The app itself is getting mixed reviews. But what counts in the long run is Facebook’s continuous effort to go mobile. That is relevant to our market because Filipinos are big users of Facebook,” Isberto said.

“There are about 30 million Facebook users in the country — about nine out of 10 Filipinos online. And the number keeps growing,” Isberto said.

“If Facebook Home builds a solid following locally, Filipinos may soon take to communicating over the app and further strengthen Facebook’s hold on the social media habits of people here,” he added.

Filipinos have long had a well-deserved reputation for embracing the latest forms of messaging. The Philippines was considered the text capital of the world for a good part of the past decade and is one of the world’s most active Facebook nations in recent years.

“For now, Facebook Home has limited reach but it could very well offer us a peek at what the company has in store for the future,” Isberto said.

“In any case, social media usage is expected to grow rapidly as more and more Filipinos start using the Internet,” he said. “So, whatever happens, the demand for mobile data services is certain to grow briskly.”

Smart has been preparing for this scenario by investing heavily in its mobile data services infrastructure.

The PLDT subsidiary has transformed its entire cellular network and made it ready for Long Term Evolution (LTE), the fourth-generation mobile data technology. This has enabled Smart to roll out its LTE service to over 115 cities and municipalities all over the country.

Together with parent company PLDT, Smart has over 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables (FOCs) nationwide.  The two companies are installing 5,000 more kilometers of fiber this year.

Unlike legacy copper wiring, which uses electricity to send data from one end to another, FOCs use beams of light to deliver large volumes of calls, text messages, and data.

“With over four times more fiber than its competitors, we enjoy an advantage that is simply unmatched,” Isberto said.