After the infamous porn ban, the government is after social media. Especially, Facebook, Twitter, Google etc. The main reason, to control the information spread through them and TAX. Nepali business houses are spending a good amount of money on digital marketing and this is no secret. Nepal government now want sweet tax money from ad revenue. Till date, due to lack of official international payment channel government has not been able to earn tax for all those ad revenues. And since almost all companies are probably using the unofficial channels for payment, the ad revenue from Nepal is probably still seen as zero.

The new law requires social media to register itself in Nepal. Failing to do so will ultimately cause the BAN. Here are the reasons I believe Facebook and other social media will enter Nepal.

NayaPatrika’s estimation on how much Facebook is earning from Nepal.

1. Obviously, to avoid the ban. The ban will definitely cause outrage in the general public but since major social media will be banned the outrage won’t be noticed on the internet (lol).

2. It is estimated that the amount spent on Facebook ads and Google ads are close to 200cr NPR. The amount is huge and setting up an office isn’t an issue for these companies.

3. The government will face the backlash in Nepal, but ultimately in the global platform, Facebook and these giant social media will face the backlash. Especially, when the news will go out that they ignored the government’s order and is not paying tax. The ban and slow news day will definitely propel this news on the international platform.

4. It is not that hard to get in! Google is already making their presence in Nepal via Google Business Group, Google Map group and even installing cache server in Nepal. Plus, there are already companies like Microsoft, Alibaba, Cloudflare etc. in Nepal. Plus, they will still be able to generate good revenue from Nepal.

5. Setting up an office is not as hard as it used to be. With virtual offices and shared offices, it is very easy to get started and maintain.

Why they won’t come.

There is a chance nothing of this will happen. The government will pass the law and do nothing. And they won’t bother coming here as Facebook’s ad revenue from Nepal is still zero (since most don’t use Nepali banks to pay)