One of the Most Popular Facebook Apps is Not for Smartphones

Facebook announced Sunday that 100 million people have downloaded a little app called "Facebook for Every Phone," which is designed for feature phones. For developing countries, where smartphones are not an option yet, this app has been huge.

Facebook's announcement was made by Ran Makavy, Facebook's growth manager, who emphasized the worldwide appeal of the Facebook for Every Phone app, while revealing that the app had surpassed 100 million users each month. "This is an important milestone for us," wrote Makavy, "Facebook's mission is to make the world more open and connected, and Facebook for Every Phone enables people around the globe to connect to the people and things they care about most, no matter what kind of mobile device they use."

The social networking giant's feature phone app is widespread in places like India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, and other developing countries where smartphones are too expensive for many and some data networks may not be developed enough. "Ultimately, Facebook for Every Phone is a fast and easy-to-use native app that works on more than 3,000 different types of feature phones from almost every handset manufacturer that exists today," wrote Makavy. "These devices can cost as little as 20 US dollars."

Facebook began the "Facebook for Every Phone" initiative in 2011, promising that the app would have many of the same functions that Facebook users enjoy on the web and their smartphones. Some of the things feature phone users can access on the pared-down app include the News Feed, Inbox, Status, and users can create an account from their phone, find friends from their contact list, and upload photos.

The app works on all Java-enabled phones and is powered by Snaptu, an Israel-based mobile platform that Makavy helped found six years ago. "We actually run the apps on our servers," said Makvay to The New York Times. "the result was something that looks almost like a smartphone app."

In addition to taking the processing load off of feature phones, Facebook created a partnership with many network carriers for the Facebook for Every Phone app to subsidize data usage, meaning that some of the poorest in the world pay very little, if anything, to interact with the social network. "In just two years, Facebook for Every Phone has successfully put Facebook into the hands of millions of people around the world with limited access to the internet, giving them the power to connect and share," said Makavy.

The feature phone app is an investment in the future of developing markets, as Facebook has only begun selling ads for the app, and, according to the New York Times, only 24 percent of its revenue came from outside the United States, Canada, and Europe, with an even smaller percentage coming from feature phones. But Facebook sees this as an opportunity to expand its user base and gain brand loyalty early, especially as mobile usage continues to grow in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

For example, with more than 84 percent of Latin America subscribing to a mobile service, and around 98 percent of the population having a mobile cell signal, making Latin America the leader of global mobile growth according to the World Bank's estimate last year, there's plenty of room for Facebook to gain new customers. You can download the Facebook for Every Phone app here.