Facebook pages are no longer just for exchanging points of view or connecting institutions and companies with their clients. Pages for comics or jokes are also no longer just pages to discuss the daily events ironically—they’ve gone into business.
Some young people took advantage of the huge number of Facebook users who follow comics to turn their pages into advertising platforms by making deals with companies and institutions. Facebook pages with more than 1 million followers can guarantee that a large number of users will see an advertisement published on that page. The cost of these advertisements is very low compared to traditional advertising means.
The administrator of the Facebook page “Diary of a Pathetic Husband” entered the world of advertising by making deals with some small businesses to publish their advertisements at low prices for his 1.3 million followers to see.
The Facebook page’s administrator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he publishes advertisements on his page for EGP 50 per day. He also does not delete it from the page after the end of the advertisement’s period. Publishing the same advertisement every day for a week costs the client EGP 300, and EGP 1,000 for a whole month. Publishing four different advertisements costs the client EGP 100 per day.
According to the page’s administrator, clients pay for the publication of their advertisements through mobile top-up cards. The client buys card and then he receives the PIN code on the card from the client and charges his own mobile, or through balance transfer. He considered it the best way to receive payment as well as avoiding any legal issues that may arise.
He re-sells the balance which he obtains for the advertisement at his private mobile shop. He described it as a “barter system”.
There are ready-made advertisement templates and he only changes for the content, while other clients send their own design. This Facebook page publishes many advertisements, such as for Zanussi’s maintenance service.
The number of Facebook users in Egypt exceeds 27 million people, making it the number one Arab country in terms of Facebook users and 14th in the world. The “Diary of a Pathetic Husband” page ranks 420 in Egypt out of more than 500 pages classified by Socialbakers, a social media analytics and publishing company.
