Facebook is committed to bringing people closer together, giving a voice to communities and helping boost the economy to unlock Europe’s full digital potential.
100,000 businesses have been trained so far
44% of European SMBs say they've grown their business through Facebook
13 Developer Circles
15 European offices
Paving the way for France’s next generation of startups
Sharing digital skills and using technology for good
Helping organisations connect with their customers
Our programmes in Europe help support economic growth and the use of technology for good.
From helping small and medium enterprises grow, to boosting digital skills through community training hubs and startup accelerators, we're committed to helping Europe thrive.
Facebook works with a wide range of partners across Europe. These partnerships allow us to have an open dialogue with industry, help us keep everyone on Facebook safe, and ensure that some of our most innovative, energy-efficient technology is available to all.
We have been engaging with SMBs in Italy, Spain and Poland to equip them with resources and training to support their continued growth.
Research shows that our contribution to SMBs’ growth stretches across a range of metrics – from the number of businesses built entirely on our platform to the number of people who use Facebook to find new job opportunities.
Startup Garage Paris from Facebook is a programme designed to empower innovative startups in France. We provide access to expertise and mentoring as well as dedicated working space within Station F, a startup campus in Paris's 13th arrondissement.
With Startup Garage, we are committed to supporting the next generation of startup success stories.
Facebook Journalism Project launched in January 2017 to strengthen our engagement with the news industry through increased transparency and collaboration.
The initiative consists of three pillars: development of news products, improved training for journalists and helpful tools for everyone, such as News Literacy working sessions and the News Integrity Initiative.
People use our platform to speak out against hatred. We believe these efforts against racism, violence and extremism are essential.
That's why we work closely with communities, academic experts and policymakers to support counterspeech initiatives, including P2P: Facebook Global Digital Challenge, Online Civil Courage Initiative, hackathons and NGO training.
In 2011, we helped start the Open Compute Project – a community of engineers on a mission to foster more openness, more innovation and a greater focus on energy efficiency in computing technologies. Today, there are more than 200 members.
An engineering-focused initiative driven by operators, suppliers, developers, integrators and startups to pick apart the traditional network approach. Our involvement is part of our overall commitment to bringing the world closer together. We’re working in close collaboration with the industry to overcome global connectivity challenges.
We’re working closely with small and medium-sized organisations to understand their needs.
The SMB Council brings together businesses that are using Facebook to reach local customers and those around the world. The Council allows us to exchange ideas, learn about their needs and support them with tools that help them grow.
Council members can network with each other, represent SMB owners' views to policymakers and share their stories through event panels and PR opportunities.
Boost Your Business is an event series run by Facebook throughout Europe. It helps businesses use our digital tools to connect with their customers, share their brand and expand the reach of their products and services.
Customer panels and workshops provide hands-on help from Facebook experts. There's open discussion of real-world challenges, in order to find practical solutions that encourage growth and engagement.
Crisis Response is a place on Facebook where you can find information about recent crises, use Safety Check to connect with friends and loved ones and offer or find help for people in the affected area. You can also create or donate to fundraising initiatives in support of recovery efforts.
We've been leading industry efforts to detect, review and remove terrorist images or videos that are circulating online.
As well as being a member of the EU Internet Forum and of the EU Code of Conduct on Hate Speech, we launched the Online Civil Courage Initiative in Europe in 2016, which gives financial and marketing support to NGOs working to counter online extremism and brings together experts to develop best practice.
Developer Circles is a programme designed to create locally organised communities for developers. These communities provide a forum for discussion and knowledge, sharing topics that are top of mind for developers.
Recognising Facebook’s own roots in the developer community, our Developer Circles are aimed at equipping local developers with world-class skills.
We're offering to train Digital Safety Ambassadors at every UK secondary school through a landmark partnership with youth charities Childnet International and The Diana Award.
Investing more than £1m in the first two years, we will train young people to provide peer-to-peer support and lead online safety and anti-bullying initiatives in the classroom.
We've invested in a European AI research centre in Paris, known as Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR). FAIR carries out research into a range of exciting AI topics, including automatic language processing, image recognition and AI infrastructures.
By choosing Paris, we're supporting scientific research institutions like Inria and opening up opportunities for students and academics.
Facebook has created tools specifically for people to use in times of disaster, including Crisis Response, Community Help and Fundraisers, where people can raise money for disaster relief and recovery.
Facebook also address the information gap after disasters by running ads on behalf of local governments to share critical crisis information with people affected.
One thing we consistently hear from small businesses is how much they value education. That's why, in 2015, we launched Blueprint – a free global education and certification programme, available in 15 languages.
Blueprint courses help businesses of all sizes achieve their goals through marketing on Facebook, plus its family of apps and services.
Organisations responding to natural disasters often face a critical gap in information. Our disaster maps use de-identified Facebook data to pinpoint which neighbourhoods are most in need of assistance
We work closely with UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the World Food Programme to get important information into the hands of relief organisations.
Since 2016, we’ve partnered with the OECD and the World Bank on the Future of Business Survey.
This annual survey of the global economy helps inform commercial decisions at all levels.
The research focuses on the environment in which SMBs operate, giving them the timely, relevant insights needed to drive sustainable business growth.
Facebook ‘House of Us’ was an immersive pop up that creatively brought to life the experience of cyberbullying and the positive action that can be taken to address it. The event was created with young people, for young people, and we invited schools from across the UK to take part, in addition to journalists, politicians and safety organisations.
Our Design Jams bring together experts including regulators and behavioural scientists for a series of workshops focused on design thinking. The aim is to work together to develop new data features that people will find valuable in their everyday lives.
We believe that when women succeed, economies do better. That’s why we’re committed to bringing She Means Business to communities across the globe.
By partnering with local organisations that specialise in developing business skills, we can equip even more women with the resources and training they need to grow their companies, taking their dreams to the next level.
We are passionate about developing new sources of renewable energy.
We're thrilled to have opened data centres in Luleåa, Sweden, Clonee, Ireland and Odense, Denmark. These locations offer excellent access to fibre and a robust electric grid with an abundance of renewable energy resources; and our local communities offer a strong pool of talent for both construction and operations staff.
Our learnings from securing clean and renewable energy for our data centres are shared with coalitions like Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) and RE100 to help everyone move faster to green the grid.
We partner with The Economist's Intelligence Unit on The Inclusive Internet index – an annual survey providing insights into the availability and affordability of the Internet in 75 countries.
The survey also explores the Internet's relevance and accessibility to people across the globe, giving policymakers an invaluable insight into the state of the digital world.
People come to Facebook to share their stories, see the world through the eyes of others and connect with friends and family. Our mission is to give people the power to share and to make the world more open and connected. We want everyone to feel safe when using Facebook.
We work with external experts, including a Safety Advisory Board, and gather feedback from our community to develop policies, tools and resources to keep you safe.
Facebook is in a unique position to help connect those in distress with friends who can show support. People can access tools to resolve conflict online, help a friend who is expressing suicidal thoughts or get resources if they’re going through a difficult time.
We have teams working around the world, 24/7, who prioritise the most serious reports like suicide.
We recently published a report on 'The Insta-Economy', based on data from Ipsos Consult, Morning Consult and economic analysis from Development Economics. The report presented detailed findings around Instagram's contribution to growth and job creation amongst SMBs in the UK.
Our Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) team in Paris are excited to launch a new Masterclass programme, giving the next generation of developers a look into the world of AI and big data.
The initiative features five lectures on machine learning, computer vision, computer speech recognition, natural language processing and recurrent neural networks, as well as two half-day workshops.
Classes are available to students from Ecole 42 and to members of the Facebook Developer Circles programme across EMEA, bringing some of the world's brightest developers to France.
Facebook's donation tools make it easy for people to support charitable causes that are meaningful to them.
The first associations to participate in our programme include Fondation de France, the Restos du Cœur, UNICEF and Action Against Hunger. People can support these organisations using the 'Make a donation' button on Facebook and Facebook Live, as well as the Facebook Fundraisers Tool.
The Digitales Lernzentrum Berlin brings people together to learn digital skills and to use technology for good.
We offer free facilities to partners who teach digital skills to groups with limited access to such courses, including children, the elderly and refugees.
“I thought I would need to have a physical place to make my business, but I realised that I have everything I need with Facebook.” – Marta Costales, Business Owner / Founder, Anipulseras, Spain
"Being able to activate the UNICEF community, already very committed to Facebook, and to give it concrete ways to act is excellent news." — Hubert Chaminade, Head of Digital Collection at UNICEF France
“Facebook has a great impact on our business. Not only are we being able to reach customers, but thanks to Facebook the media got to know us.” — Quentin Labrique, Etterbeek, Belgium
