Facebook is deeply invested in understanding how small and medium-sized businesses engage with digital tools, not only because they’re crucial customers, but also because small enterprises provide the majority of jobs globally.

On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled the “2017 Future of Business” survey with the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to provide monthly data on “the perceptions, challenges and outlook” of online small and medium enterprises. The study spans 33 countries and more than 140,000 small businesses using Facebook Pages. Its goal is to help businesses learn from each other and to encourage them to use technology to further their reach, Facebook said.

This year’s survey builds on an initial report in September based on 17 countries. The survey found that nearly a fifth of small businesses created jobs in the past six months.

“We take our responsibilities seriously as a new kind of platform, and technology needs to provide the opportunity that everyone participates in,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a phone interview. “The numbers of jobs that are created online and Facebook, in particular, are astounding. We want to help small businesses grow, and we want to help them continue to create jobs.”

Facebook’s extensive network of small businesses — more than 60 million small and medium-sized businesses have Facebook Pages — made it a natural partner for the survey, said Facebook research manager Molly Jackman. Some of the key findings of the study revolved around the relationship between the use of digital tools and international trade; gender and confidence around a business; and the Internet as an equalizing force. The findings help shed light on how the mobile, digital economy works and could help inform policy. The results will be updated monthly and shared publicly. Most of the enterprises represented fell outside of “tech.”

“Often when people think about small businesses and Facebook they think of tech-savvy businesses or people building apps,” Sandberg said. Certainly, we have some of those, but the majority are non-tech businesses — the plumbers, the bakers, the local florists who are using technology to reach customers and sell their products and services.”

Article Source: Forbes