Mediaboss Marketing

Facebooks never-ending search for new revenue streams has taken the Palo Alto-based company to the world of Brazilian favelas, or slums. Last week the social media behemoth launched a new initiative to offer entrepreneurial and technology skills to small businesses in Heliopolis, Sao Paulos biggest favela. The initiative, dubbed Facebook in the community, is aimed at entrepreneurs who are looking to increase their customer base through social networking.

This is a pioneering project, an innovation lab with 15 computers to deliver knowledge and training to the community and demonstrate how a page can be useful for a small firm, Patrick Hruby, an executive withFacebook in Latin America, told the AFP news agency.

Facebook lab launched in Heliopolis, Sao Paulo (PHOTO: Courtesy of Facebook, Inc.)

The initiative is initially intended as a pilot for other low income communities on the outskirts of Brazils business hub, and it will also include training in management skills, computing and marketing for the favela entrepreneurs.

It also marks Facebooks entrance into a market that is already worth some $21.4 billion a year, according to a study by consulting firm Data Popular. With a population of about 12 million people, favelas in Brazil form a niche market still underexplored by major Brazilian companies, in spite of its residents being mostly members of the Classe C, the countrys burgeoning lower-middle class.

Brazil is one of the worlds six biggest players in the information technology and communications markets, according to research released in January by the International Data Corporation, which projected 5% growth for the segments this year to reach total revenues of $165.6 billion. It is less than the 8% growht registered last year, but still a good number considering that Brazils economy as a whole is expected to remain flat amid a series of tax increases and spending cuts.

Facebook is popular in Brazil, with 107.7 million users 89 million of whom are active monthly and 59 million are active daily. That makes it the companys largest market outside the U.S. Brazil has the the worlds fourth-largest smartphone market, and 87.4% of Brazils internet users visited social networking sites in January, spending an average of 628 minutes each on the sites, or almost twice the amount of time spent by American users that same month, according to research firm comScore.

In Helipolis, about 90% of the 200,000 residents have a profile on Facebook, but only about 14% of its 5,000 small businesses have a page on the social network so far, Hruby told the AFP.

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Facebook Taps Brazilian Favela In Search For Advertising Revenue