Facebook Malaysia’s Country Director, Nicole Tan has expressed the platform’s commitment towards fast forwarding Malaysia’s digital progress through small medium enterprises (SMEs) during the Facebook Summit 2020.
“We know the pandemic has hit the smallest businesses the hardest. However, with Facebook tools, they have also managed to leverage on opportunities throughout these unprecedented times,” she said.
Tan highlights Facebook Malaysia’s partnerships with MDEC’s Usahawan Programme where businesses can leverage on various Facebook tools for their operations. “For one SME, 80 percent of orders came from Facebook ads, and its business has since expanded overseas since.”
“From medium to large businesses, we are committed to helping brands identify ways to stay relevant by equipping them to stay relevant with knowledge and insights on keeping up with today’s evolving landscape,” she added.
According to a study, Digital Consumers of Tomorrow, Here Today by Facebook and Bain & Company, the growth of digital consumers in Southewast Asia is expected to reach 310 million by the end of the year.
The growth was originally forecasted for 2025 in the 2019 study, indicating a five-year acceleration this year alone.
“In Malaysia alone, we are expecting approximately 4 million new digital consumers in 2020. Online is no longer just one of many channels, for many businesses, it has become their main channel. It is crucial for businesses to connect with consumers in ways that are frictionless and to replicate in-person interactions through social platforms, messaging and short videos as much as possible to drive discovery and loyalty,” Tan said at the time.
At the Facebook Summit, Tan highlights that in continuing their partnership with MDEC, Facebook Malaysia will support the eUsahawan programme to scale education to a wider range of people and aims to reach 50,000 young entrepreneurs by this year.
“We will be launching a new train-the-trainer programme to certify a 100 digital marketing trainers by this year through our flagship digital marketing certification, Blueprint,” Tan said.
The platform will also be launching its Facebook Live Labs programme, a self-managed broadcasting space to equip Facebook’s programme partners with professional facilities to deliver quality and consistent broadcasting of FB programmes across Malaysia.
“With this virtual summit, we hope to reaffirm our commitment to help fast forward the country’s digital transformation by helping Malaysian businesses grow both at home and abroad through digital upskilling programmes and support community building efforts in creating social impact,” she concluded.
