Facebook plans to train 20k entrepreneurs from 100 Indian cities: report

Social media giant Facebook is planning to train 20,000 entrepreneurs from 100 cities of India in the next six months to help them scale their small and medium businesses, reported PTI.

As a part of its “Boost your Business” initiative, Facebook has tied up with a Gujrat-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) that would provide startups with “knowledge, skill and technology to stay innovative and increase market across globally”.

To date, Facebook has over 201 million active users from India alone and about 65 million SMBs have pages on Facebook, with 57 per cent of Indian users connected to at least one small business.

“Our 'Boost Your Business' initiative was launched in 2015, but with EDII, we plan to go to 20 states and 100 cities in the next six months in its first phase, expanding five times than what we have achieved so far,” Ritesh Mehta, head of programmes, South Asia told PTI.

Mr. Ritesh said: “They (businesses) see a measurable difference (when connected to Facebook). First, the cost of business goes down. The service is free (setting up a Facebook page is free, communicating with your customer is free, and reaching new customers is free). Money that you spend on marketing can be spent on other things, like improving your business, scaling your business, hiring more people. “Secondly, it is essentially allowing you to reach a lot more customers. Facebook allows you to reach out to expand nationally and internationally.”

The company has also showed interest to not just limit the initiative to EDII, but also to take up other methods of connecting people through their platform to encourage and help them set up business.

(With inputs from PTI)