Indonesia’s Unusual Facebook Behavior

According to research from TNS Global, only 14 percent of users in Indonesia acccess Facebook on a daily basis compared to the global average of 46 percent. The number is relatively small, even though Indonesia has the second largest Facebook user base after the United States with 35 million people registered on the social networking site.

While people are very enthusiastic about the new forms of social media, most Indonesians access the web from internet cafes and from their mobile phones, and this has likely accounted for the comparatively lower Facebook activity.

James Fergusson of TNS explained, “Discomfort with internet cafes or first-generation smartphones forces consumers to compromise and decrease the frequency they access social networks.”

However, many mobile devices in Indonesia now support easy access to services such as Facebook. Most notable among them are popular BlackBerry handsets, smartphones from China, or local brands which are slightly more affordable.

Unwanted ads from sellers on Facebook

One unusual development has seen Facebook emerge as a place for Indonesians to buy and sell goods. In addition to using normal e-commerce websites, many individual users sell products on Facebook by inserting photos and then tagging their friends in the product photos. For the average Facebook user, being the subject of this kind of “photo-tagged advertising” can be quite annoying.

A user in Jakarta, Dwi Tupani, told The Jakarta Post that she even removed one of her friends on Facebook because of this kind of tagged-photo advertising. “She started tagging me in photos over and over, trying to sell plastic and home products. . . That is just trashing my wall.”

The are many ways to use (or misuse) Facebook: whether it’s for connection between friends, or even for selling goods — nevertheless, the platform has increased social media activity overall in Indonesia. Perhaps the emergence of more and more online shopping or social commerce sites (like Multiply) could eliminate this kind of activity on Facebook. But for now, as people still educate themselves on the ways of social ‘netiquette,’ such behavior will likely continue to be a reality.