facebook continues latam startup hub expansion, now in colombia
Bogotá will soon be home to Latin America’s latest Startup Hub by Facebook.
Colombian startups and developers can now expect to receive mentorship from the social media giant. The Startup Hub will focus on various topics to ensure their success at all levels.
The initiative will not only be free but will seek to connect startups with their key audiences and help them drive their businesses. The attendees can also expect:
- Training regarding entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence (AI), product development, innovation and Facebook’s latest tech (Ah, there it is; Facebook sneaking its wear into the pile of goodies).
- A networking hub through Developer Circles in what Facebook calls “one of the strongest communities of developers on Earth, given its members’ commitment and information exchange.” The idea is that these “circles” will enable developers to collaborate, learn, and code together.
- The launch of Startup Circles which will help new companies potentiate their building, growth, and monetization processes.
Aspiring attendees can also hope to receive the necessary training and resources to develop privacy and ethics applications from the design stage. Although, what exactly is meant by “resources” is left noticeably vague.
In a trip down memory lane, Diego Bassante—Facebook’s Public Policy Chief for the Andean Region—harkened back to a time to Facebook’s early days. He remarked on when the internet titan was a fledgling startup. He particularly mused on “how important it is to get the right help to launch an idea.”
But its not all just wistful reminiscences. Facebook has its eye on Latin America for an even bigger reason.
Facebook startup hubs across Latin America
The region is no stranger to the social media mogul’s advances. This is because it is clear that the company understands Latin America’s enormous latent potential.
Indeed, Sao Paulo’s 2017 Hack Station was Facebook’s first-ever innovation center. This should come as no surprise, of course. Brazil is a treasure trove for the company. Over half its population is signed up to the site—that’s 120 million people.
The story is similar in Mexico. Facebook has been working alone and in collaboration with the likes of MassChallenge to evolve the startup ecosystem in Latin America’s northernmost country.
Related article- MassChallenge reveals 10 technology startups participating in Facebook Accelerator CDMX 2019
All this activity is due to the fact that Facebook knows that the regional market will require somewhere near 450,000 software developers by next year. Just in Mexico, more than 150,000 will be needed by then.
This means that Latin America is ripe for the picking when it comes to training, gathering, and influencing companies and developers. And, who knows? Perhaps one or two of these Startup Hub grads will end up work for or to the benefit of Facebook.
-AG
