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Facebook and social media have taken off big time in Nepal.
Update March 2021: The number of Facebook users in Nepal as of March 2021 is 12 million. This is including Facebook users from 18 years and above. Facebook continues to grow at a slower pace compared to other social media such as Instagram or TikTok in Nepal in the recent years. 90% people in Nepal use Facebook or internet on mobile only. Among them Android continues to be the dominant device.
Update November 2020: The number of Facebook users in Nepal as of November 2020 is 12 million. This is including Facebook users from 13 years. Over the last year, the ratio of 18-24 age group Facebook users have decreased significantly as they move to other social media.
Update November 2019: The number of Facebook users in Nepal has crossed 10 million as of November 2019. This is including Facebook users from 15 years. That’s over one third population of Nepal!
Update March 2019: As of March 2019, the number of monthly active Facebook users in Nepal is 9 million. 61% of users are male and 39% female. Among these, ~47% are 25 to 34 age group. 36% are 18 to 24 age group. 17% other age groups. So basically most youth still use Facebook. Top 5 active regions are Kathmandu (52%), Pokhara, Butwal, Bharatpur and Biratnagar.
Update October 2015: Facebook and social media have taken off big time in Nepal. As of October 2015, the number of Facebook users in Nepal is over 5 million. Even Facebook company and founder Mark Zuckerberg himself has shown fair amount of interest in Nepal, especially in the aftermath of Nepal earthquake.
While working for a client project, I have come up with some data on Facebook users in Nepal by geographic zones. Facebook (advertising) still groups based on the 14 zones of Nepal. As expected, Bagmati, which includes Kathmandu has most number of Facebook users. But just how much gap there is in the internet penetration (or Facebook usage) in the different zones of Nepal was an interesting insight for me. Hope this is useful for others too.
Bagmati leads with close to 70% of Facebook users in Nepal. This was followed by Gandaki and Narayani zones with around 9% and 7% Facebook users. Here is the current rank of the 14 zones by the number of Facebook users in Nepal.
- Bagmati
- Gandaki
- Narayani
- Lumbini
- Kosi
- Bheri
- Mechi
- Seti
- Dhawalagiri
- Rapti
- Janakpur
- Sagarmatha
- Mahakali
- Karnali
This just goes on to show how little internet or Facebook reaches to regions outside selected cities and zones in Nepal. This despite that fact that voice telephony in Nepal has actually reached over 100% of country population as of 2015 (Ref. NTA MIS Reports). And internet users in Nepal almost exclusively means mobile internet users (over 95%). Hopefully these kind of insights would push the telecom companies such as NTC, Ncell or the government to invest for a better coverage in all regions of Nepal. Or even open up for disruption in the underdeveloped zones for global companies such as Facebook and Google.
Methodology Notes: Tools used Facebook Advertising and Power editor. %rounded off for convenience. Facebook Reach taken as reference. Reach sample size over 50,000.
Update November 2011: Facebook users in Nepal reached 1 million around June 2011. As of November 2011, the number of users of Facebook in Nepal has exceeded 1,300,000.
The number of Facebook users in Nepal as of February 2011 is 881,160. Nepal ranks as the 75th country based on number of Facebook users. USA leads the way with over 150 million out of the whopping 500+ million Facebook users globally. Even India has over 22 million Facebook users.
The comparatively lower number of Nepalese on Facebook is because the total number of internet users is low. According to Internet World Stats, there are only 625,800 internet users in Nepal by 2010. Though this number probably doesn’t take into account of Nepalese abroad, who are the main avid Facebook users as well.
Global Distribution of Facebook. 500+ million users and counting.
USA has most Facebook users in the World. Recently, users have sharply increased from Asian and African countries as well.
Asian countries Indonesia, Philippines and India are among the top 10 list of Facebook users.
The huge popularity of Facebook in Nepal ranks it in 75. Among the users, most people (over 75%) are youths of age 18-34. No doubt companies and brands are now targeting Facebook as one of the internet advertising choice due to it growing popularity and direct engagement.
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