The American social network operator has millions of users in Myanmar, which tells us about its popularity in the region..
Over the last few years, Facebook’s user growth in Myanmar has been impressive. During those years, the website worked as national news outlet and emergency relief coordinator – but through it the fangs of cyber bulling and privacy invasion has been injected into the region.
The website holds a large number of personal details, yet users might not be aware about the US social networking giant’s presence in the country, as the website doesn’t publicize its statistics regarding its Myanmar users.
The Myanmar Times got assistance from Yangoon based Amara Digital Marketing Agency –an organization which keeps the details of site obtained from Facebook’s business manager –to better understand the social network platform. The data received from the same firm declared the number of active monthly users of Myanmar to be over 9.7 million by mid of May. This indicates that close to 19% of the country’s population is using social networking site.
According to agency’s head of operations, Ma Chan Myae Khine, although the number of profiles has increased by thrice or four times however there are several accounts which are either locked or inactive. She added that within the time frame of less than 12 months, the site’s user base has grown by twice. Last year, by mid-July, the total monthly active users in Myanmar was totaled 4.7 million.
Almost 90% of Facebook users are located in country’s two major cities Mandalay and Yangoon, and their nearby regions. But in an upset Chan finds difficult to elaborate upon, Mandalay has eclipsed the commercial capital of the city, Yango, as far as Facebook users are concerned. Out of the cumulative 9.7 million active monthly users, around 41% are inside the40 km radius of Yangon compared to 47% around Mandalay.
Chan views a relationship between the nation’s latest telecom rollouts and grown Facebook usage. She states that, for example in the state of Kayah there’s an increase in users on the social networking website when a telecommunication service provider launches there. Ma stated that Facebook can prove to be unsafe for users who are not digital literate- particularly those from rural regions. But she also stated the website can boost income as well as knowledge.
Men surpass women on the platform by almost 2-to-1, the data demonstrated. While over 6.2 million men in Myanmar were active on the website, the number of women who had logged upon on the platform was less than 3.5 m. In the country, despite of making up the majority of the population, ladies are 30% less probably to have a cellular phone, as reported by The Myanmar Times.
