Posted on Tuesday, February 10 2015 @ 15:06 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
We've often heard stories of people who think Internet Explorer is the Internet but now it seems Facebook is becoming so pervasive that large numbers of first-time adopters in emerging countries are coming online via Facebook's proprietary network. Two unrelated surveys conducted in Indonesia and Nigeria
found that many respondents talked enthusiastically about how much time they spent on the Facebook app on their phone, but claimed that they did not use the rest of the Internet.
Apparently large numbers of first-time adopters come online via Facebook's proprietary network, rather than via the open web and it means that companies will have to obey Facebook rules if they want to get ahead.
"In both countries, more than half of those who don't know they're using the internet say they 'never' follow links out of Facebook, compared with a quarter or less of respondents who say they use both Facebook and the internet," said Quartz.
"If people stay on one service, it follows that content, advertisers, and associated services also will flow to that service, possibly to the exclusion of other venues."
