Facebook on Thursday launched its largest creator education and enablement programme in India to provide content creators on its platform and Instagram an opportunity to learn, earn and grow their communities.
Speaking at the 2021 edition of 'Creator Day India', Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said India is among the fastest growing markets for the photo sharing and short video platform.
"India is one of the fastest growing countries in the entire world, it's becoming one of the most important places for us at Instagram to focus on. We can't be more excited about all the momentum and creativity we're seeing from Indian creators right now on Instagram," he added.
Facebook India Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan said the past year has seen an explosion of talent and creativity on the platforms from all across India. "We want to invest and support this ecosystem, and be the best place for creators to grow and make a living. We plan to do this by developing a range of creative tools that democratise expression. Reels is a great example of how creativity has been democratised," he said.
He explained that people from the smallest cities and towns in the country are using Reels — Instagram's short video feature — and are being discovered nationally, and increasingly globally. Today, on an average, over six million Reels are produced in India every day, Mohan said.
He stated that the social media platform is introducing monetisation tools "that can help creators earn through content".
"We know that learning is a critical phase in the creator journey and in an attempt to make access to create an education more scalable and even more democratised than earlier, we are launching one of the biggest creator learning programmes. This is the next phase of 'Born on Instagram' and it will give creators across India a chance to learn through a self-paced online learning course," he said.
Mohan added that the programme will provide live master classes with experts, the latest information on trends, product updates, and challenges to help creators keep up with what's unfolding on Instagram. At the end of the course, the participants will receive a course completion letter as well. It will also give creators the opportunity to real monetary opportunities through various programmes, he pointed out.
"We hope this investment in the Indian creator ecosystem lays the foundation for even greater creator aspirations to come alive, thereby impacting culture in a more diverse, and in a more inclusive manner," he said.
The 'Born on Instagram' programme was launched in 2019. Facebook-owned Instagram is now increasingly launching many of its features in India first. Last year, it had launched its new format 'Reels' that allows users to create and share short videos and India was among the first countries where it was launched. The company went on to launch a separate tab for 'Reels' and India was the first country to get this feature.
India was also among the first two countries where Instagram launched Live Rooms - the feature where four people can go Live together.
In July this year, Instagram said it is testing a new 'Collab' feature in India and the UK that will allow users to collaborate with others on Feed Posts and Reels.
