MUMBAI: Facebook, which has identified India as its major growth market, is looking to build the ‘social video’ ecosystem in the country that allows users to not just consume, but also interact and engager with content creators.
And in the country crazy for stars, Facebook is partnering with celebrities and youth icons for content in order to boost engagement on the platform.
The social network has joined hands with Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff to exclusively live stream Matrix Fight Night, a mixed martial arts promotion that will see multiple bouts between 14 fighters on March 12.
This is not the first time Facebook has partnered with a celebrity. Hollywood star Will Smith is already making a six-part series ‘Bucket List’ for Facebook Watch where he scratches off everything on his bucket list live on camera.
Among Indian celebrities, Priyanka Chopra Jonas recently hosted a live-athon, #SocialForGood, wherein she and culture influencers came together to talk about how they are nurturing communities with the use of social media and creating a meaningful impact Priyanka Chopra (L), Tiger Shroff (R) “Facebook and Instagram are platforms of choice for celebrities to build communities and engage their fans,” said Saket Jha Saurabh, Head of Entertainment Partnerships, Facebook India.
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On partnering with Shroff, Saurabh said that it was an easy decision as he (Shroff) is well-known for his passion for fitness and believes strongly in martial arts as a sport. “...to have Tiger’s maiden MMA venture, Matrix Fight Night stream live and exclusively on Facebook and Instagram is the next big step for him to grow the MMA movement in India. And we are delighted to support him in this endeavour,” Saurabh said.
Facebook is trying to build the social video platform where public figures, who have an idea or have a passion point, can build, engage and grow a community around that idea. “They can not only create great content, video and more, but also build interactivity around that content which not only informs but involves fans,” he said.
Facebook, Saurabh said, is not looking to compete with video streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video, but is more interested in building communities and creating an ecosystem.
Last year, the company had acquired streaming rights of Spanish football league, La Liga, for the India subcontinent.
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Facebook Data Breach Making Headlines, Here's How Other Scandals Began
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The Facebook leak was traced back to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge university. Here is the root of other such worldwide breaches.
(Image: Twitter/@AleksandrBKogan)
The Facebook leak was traced back to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge university. Here is the root of other such worldwide breaches.
(Image: Twitter/@AleksandrBKogan)
In 2012, companies like Visa Inc licensee, J C Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA were attacked by hackers, resulting in a collective loss of up to $300 million. A Russian and Ukrainian gang hacked into the records for over seven years, breaching 8,00,000 bank accounts and stealing more than 160 million credit and debit card numbers. While his colleagues did the hacking, 32-year-old Russian Roman Kotov was charged with mining the data.
In 2012, companies like Visa Inc licensee, J C Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA were attacked by hackers, resulting in a collective loss of up to $300 million. A Russi..
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While eBay’s database was hacked earlier in 2014, the news came out only in May that year. The online auction house went into damage control. Its then CEO John Donahue asked 145 million users to change their passwords, but said that financial information was stored separately and hence, remained safe. One mind boggling detail is that the unknown hackers had access to eBay’s accounts for 229 days.
While eBay’s database was hacked earlier in 2014, the news came out only in May that year. The online auction house went into damage control. Its then CEO John Donahue asked 145 million users to chan..
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In 2007, more than 94 million customer accounts belonging to the department store group TJX were compromised. The man behind it, Albert Gonzalez, was also indicted in the Heartland Payment’s data breach, where hackers stole more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from the payment processing system in 2008. College dropout Gonzalez used several screen names like ‘soupnazi’ (a reference to the popular Seinfeld episode), ‘kingchilli’ and ‘cumbajohny’ in the TJX hack. While Gonzalez was arrested in a Miami hotel, officials found $1.6 million in cash hidden in plastic bags in a drum buried at his parent’s backyard. The soupnazi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010.
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The personal records of over 78 million customers were stolen in 2015 from American health insurance giant Anthem. Investigators suspected China’s role in the breach. Apparently, the hack happened in 2014, when just one user at an Anthem subsidiary opened a phishing email. It gave access to the company’s warehouse. In 2017, Anthem reached a settlement of $115 million — the money will reportedly be used to pay for an additional two years of credit monitoring for the breach’s victims.
The personal records of over 78 million customers were stolen in 2015 from American health insurance giant Anthem. Investigators suspected China’s role in the breach. Apparently, the hack happened in..
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Literally every single Yahoo user account was hacked into. In September 2017, Yahoo confirmed that all of its three billion accounts were exposed as part of an August 2013 breach. In a separate incident in 2016, a hacker called Peace put up the company’s user information for sale in the darknet market site, The RealDeal. The news affected Verizon’s takeover of the company, knocking off $350 million from the sale price. Verizon bought out Yahoo in June 2017.
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In December 2018, the Menlo Park-headquartered company had also decided to start sharing ad revenue with content creators, similar to YouTube.
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Facebook has also hired former Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan as India MD and VP, reporting directly into Menlo Park, a move that hints at the social network’s interest towards adding more video and content on the platform.
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