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Facebook Launches in Swahili
Facebook is gearing up to launch its social networking presence in Swahili according to reports at the BBC yesterday. This gives the social networking titan the opportunity to tap into a new market of 110 million potential speakers of the language.
The launch has been achieved in collaboration with some Swahili University boffins having received permission from Zuckerberg’s cohorts. Facebook currently exists in the native tongue of Afrikaans and has spread steadily through east and central Africa, where most of the speakers of the language live. Hausa and Zulu have been touted as potential follow on moves to cater for markets in western and southern Africa respectively.
The move is being viewed by some as a means of maintaining and developing the Swahili language using modern technological means. By appealing to a younger generation of Swahili speakers, Facebook can help to stimulate discussion in a native tongue. This simply would not have been made possible, or at least easy, using the English speaking version of the service.
Adding to the existing 50 languages available, the site has already experienced signs of quick growth with over 60% of existing Facebook users in East Africa adopting the Swahili equivalent. Presumably, Facebook wish to garner the following of a new market, whilst converting users of the English version across to advocate the user experience.
This symbolises the dawn of an important cross cultural diffusion for Facebook. However, the move could also denote a financial headache. If you have been following the Waracle blog, you will have heard discussed the climbing infrastructure costs associated with running Facebook. Each user creates $2 per month revenue, as the number of users increase, so too does the cost of hardware infrastructure, destroying any potential profit margins. It’s curious to ponder the motivation driving this move; commercial gain in the short-term seems to be overly ambitious. Combined with decreased advertising value per user, whilst undoubtedly a phenomenal break through for speakers of Swahili, also represents a significant book balancing exercise for Facebook.
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