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The importance of being in an emerging market

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In the US, UK and Europe, the number of people using Facebook is in decline. During last month alone, Facebook lost 6m visitors in the US market, a 4% fall; in the UK it has a fallen by 4.5%, about 1.4m users lost. If you look at the overall figures for the last six months, it is clear that Facebook is losing its appeal with a fall of almost 2m visitors per month in the UK  and 9m in the US.

Users in US and UK do not care as much for the most famous social network as they once did and this is also the case in Canada, Germany, France, Spain, and Japan; where Facebook has a huge number of users. According to many experts Facebook’s dominance in the social networks is under the threat from newer and more successful mobile based social networks such as Instagram and Path.

It could be argued that this decline is due in part to a change in behavior of the original “Facebook generation”, many of whom started using the platform whilst at universities years ago and now have less time to spend on the social network. The newer generation of social media users are more likely to seek apps and other more relevant platforms that occupy their free time.

Facebook’s decline, combined with the seemingly never ending financial crisis and economic downturn, means that Facebook is perhaps no longer the best platform for businesses to invest a lot of their marketing budget in, unless they are targeting overseas emerging markets where Facebook use is steady or on the increase. In fact, the US beer giant Budweiser has recently invested in the Brazilian market, which is as rich financially as it is rich with Facebook users. The number of Brazilian Facebook users is still increasing with a 6% in increase in the last month.

This week Budweiser announced a new special glass that allows you to add new friends on Facebook when you simply clink glasses with someone. How does it work? This special glass gadget contains a chip and a printed code on the bottom, which is linked to the owners Facebook account information. When toasting with another special glass user, through a simple “clink” of the glasses – or “Buddy Cups” as Budweiser have named them, the users are added as friends on Facebook this and can be seen on their news feeds that they have added each other through the Budweiser buddy cups . The Buddy Cup could be a proper wild card useful to help Budweiser to improve social media interaction with its customers, and it is definitely a move that will push its brand name globally, because it is an innovative marketing campaign.

The dilemma is: will it change the way people meet in bars, or it will be a big fail? We usually drink with someone we already know and it is unlikely we would add a complete stranger as a new friend on Facebook after just having a drink together. Eventually it could work well in a house party environment, where you are more relaxed and likely to open up to adding strangers as new friends, due to existing connections through being “friends of friends” with that person, but will the Buddy Cup ever be available for home parties?

At the moment, we don’t know much about this new beer gadget, it will probably be made available in festivals, concerts and events sponsored by Budweiser; but no one can say if it will be launched in other countries. Budweiser can only test this Facebook integrated product in an emerging market such as Brazil or other Facebook trending countries where they have the ability to capitalise on the social media growth.

Maybe in the near or distant future, they could attempt a launch in the Chinese market as well; but instead of Facebook, the cup should be integrated with Ranren, the Baidu’s (Chinese Search Engine) equivalent of Facebook.

Who knows? Only time will tell if Budweiser has uncovered a new way to trend their name with the use of social media, or if they are simply throwing money at an unrealistic and flawed marketing campaign.