For Many Indonesians, 'Fesbuk' is The Only Internet

Indonesia, a developing Muslim nation which claims the world’s third-largest community of Facebook users, has become a showcase for the social networking site’s global power and reach.

Facebook has broken technological and social barriers to connect 40 million users in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, some without even landline connections. Its remarkable ascent has for many users rendered the rest of the Internet obsolete, as well as attracted allegations that it is responsible for encouraging pornography, premarital sex and adultery.

Banking on its global popularity, which has also seen India amass the second-biggest number of users after the United States, Facebook has filed for a stock market debut expected to become one of the biggest of all time. With even cheap cell phones in Indonesia sold already bundled with Facebook applications, for many, “Fesbuk” — as it is written in the national Bahasa language — simply is the Internet.

Many don’t bother to do anything else on the Internet and are barely aware that they can use the browser button on their phone to go online, he explains.

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