Facebook User Growth Impacted by Tariff Hike in India

The parent company of Facebook, Meta has said that the price hike by the Indian telecom players has impacted the overall growth of Facebook in India in the fourth quarter of 2021. Indian telecom companies Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have increased the prepaid tariff by 25%.

Meta CFO Dave Wehner has said that due to covid resurgences pulled forward user growth. He further said that user growth in India was also limited by an increase in data package pricing.

According to Counterpoint Research Director Tarun Pathak, the prepaid data price hike impacted the social media platform. The new users in India are joining the internet revolution with the availability of affordable smartphones in the market. But the price hike in tariff plans has caused a fall in its use that affected Facebook’s growth in a price-sensitive market like India.

Facebook has more than 350 million Facebook users in India only meanwhile Meta owned WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India. It is the first time when the social media platform has lost daily users globally. The drop in stock wiped out roughly $200 billion in its market value.