Facebook has been a beacon of developed success in financial and product development over the years. It recently celebrated 12 years and aims to reach five billion users.
It's too early to tell if this will become a success or a failure, but one thing is for certain - the social media giant has hit a roadblock this 2016.
Facebook has been trying to court India but, recently, the country has turned its back on Facebook. The company's Internet.org service has been denied attention by India's telecom regulator. The government group cited illegal plans that violates net neutrality. Sadly, it has affected Facebook's Free Basics service.
Facebook's Free Basics is currently available in 38 countries throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific. India's stamp of non-approval claimed that Facebook and associated telecoms are asking consumers to pay for regular mobile services which violates net neutrality. Facebook tried to defend its stance, but still received sharp criticism from consumers.
How can Facebook move forward then? It's a delicate balance if it's government mandated. One which Facebook is currently crunching the numbers for, in order to get people to be more connected online because they can only expand their business if the user base has the billions to back it up. Currently, the social network has a 3.2 billion user base.
This major roadblock is Facebook's back ache to get to five billion users by 2030. Since the company only has over a half of the world's population, Facebook is banking on services such as Internet.org and Free Basics to cover the second half. India currently stands as Facebook's biggest growth opportunity.
