Facebook sees a huge opportunity to become the marketing platform of record for businesses seeking to reach consumers and other businesses to promote cross-country sales. Facebook is uniquely positioned as both a social platform and a marketing platform that has an astounding 1.7 billion monthly active users, one-fifth of the entire world’s population. By 2018, according to eMarketer in an April report, overall internet users are predicted to grow 30% to 3.82 billion. If Facebook grows at the same rate which seems likely, they will have over 2.2 billion active users in less than 2 years!

According to a February 2016 study by McKinsey Global Institute, 361 million people worldwide have participated in cross-border ecommerce. This is a growing and huge opportunity for Facebook, finding ways to make international ecommerce seamless and practical for businesses. Internal Facebook data shows that nearly 50 million businesses use Facebook to find customers, and 30 percent of their a businesses Facebook followers fans are in fact from other countries.

Download Facebook’s Cross-Border Business Handbookfor a full review of their international marketing opportunities.

Australia

Australia has a population of 24 million with over 21 million using the internet and of those one-third, or 14 million are active on Facebook. On average, people are checking their Facebook feed 14 times a day, making Australian’s an especially reachable target for cross-country businesses. They say that 92% of students below 25 years old access Facebook on a daily basis.

Brazil

Brazil has over a 113 million internet users, 80 million digital shoppers and 49 million smartphone users. According to Facebook surveys, over 70% of users want to receive offers and information about brands and products.

Canada

Nearly 30 million Canadian’s are on the internet and over 21 million of them are on Facebook. According to Comscore, 29% of all time spent on mobile properties in Canada happens on Facebook.

France

Close to 50 million people in France are on the internet and 31 million of those are active on Facebook. One survey showed that 25% of internet users considered Facebook as one of their favorite platforms for discovering
new content/ products or services.

Germany

Germany has 29 million active Facebookers and 82% of all internet users in Germany say that Facebook is their favorite social platform. Over 32% of Germans say they use Facebook while watching TV. There are big marketing opportunities for sports related businesses in this country, with 10 million soccer fans using Facebook.

Malaysia

Malaysia has a population of 30 million, 20 million of them are on the internet and nearly all internet users, 18 million, are active on Facebook. In Malaysia, the internet is Facebook!

Thailand

Less than half of the 68 million people in Thailand are even on the internet, yet Facebook says that it has 40 million monthly active users there. It’s total ecommerce spending is around $1 billion, leaving substantial room to grow considering the population. Over 95% of people in Thailand use at least two devices and a third use three: a smartphone, a tablet and a desktop or laptop.

Philippines

Almost all of the people on the internet in the Philippines are on Facebook, over 50 million with 1.2 more time spent on Facebook than TV, according to a Reach study commissioned by Facebook. Over 70% of internet users have seen or searched for product information on Facebook.

United Kingdom

Most people in the UK are on Facebook, over 51 million of them, and 37 million of those use Facebook. With the UK’s ecommerce market expected to hit $132 billion by 2018, this is one of the world’s biggest marketing opportunities for businesses.

United States

The US has over 200 million Facebook users, close to 77% of everybody on Facebook. The ecommerce opportunity for businesses will be nearing $500 billion by 2018 and Facebook is routinely used by US brands to promote their products.