Social networking giant Facebook has tied up with Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) for its ‘Boost Your Business’ program for which it will add 20,000 entrepreneurs from 100 cities across India over the next six months, according to a PTI report.
The tie up with EDII will help Facebook achieve this target.
"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," said Ritesh Mehta, head of programmes, South Asia.
He added that Facebook will also continue to take up other initiatives to connect people through Facebook to help them do business.
The Boost Your Business program has been designed to equip small and medium businesses with skill, knowledge and technology to stay innovative and increase markets across the globe.
This program is a part of Facebook’s public partnership policy, which is says is aimed at giving back to the community.
"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," Ritesh told PTI.
As per the report, India has 201 million active people on Facebook, with 95% of them accessing it on the mobile. Globally, over 65 business million SMBs have pages on Facebook, and 57% people on Facebook in India are connected to at least one small business, the company said.