Social Networking Site Facebook has taken the leap to raise the enthusiasm and craze in India. Facebook is now planning to start online shopping by launching a shopping festival with a name of ‘Tied Together’ on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. In the initiative, the company has tied up with media agency GroupM and will be setting up a website between August 12 and August 29.

According to Facebook’s pitch note, brands can “unlock the power of social media that can reach 10 crore potential customers through this event.” Thus the role of Facebook is to use its subscriber base and social networking platform to drive traffic to the shopping site. Participating companies will have to pay fee that will be shared by Facebook, GroupM and other media agencies.

Facebook, which has 11.2 crore users in India, is now looking for a title sponsor at an asking rate of Rs 3 crore and a principal sponsor at a similar rate besides associate sponsors for Rs 1.5 crore each. “Online shopping festivals have become a popular trend in India, especially with the rise in the number of ecommerce companies, which are driving the growth of online shopping in the country,” a media person said.

Everyone should consider Facebook as media vehicle which has a huge database that can be utilised for commercial purposes. Last year, Google has organized a shopping festival in assciation with GroupM and Amazon called the Grand Diwali Mela. In 2013, Google launched the Great Online Shopping Festival.

Earlier this year, Google started the Great Indian Travel Festival (GITF) in association with media agency conglomerate IPG Media brands. In July, ‘Magic bricks’ associated with GroupM and Google to launch a property festival known as the Great Online Home Festival. “Companies like Amazon, Flipkart and other ecommerce companies can host an online festival on their own website.

 But companies like Google and Facebook need to create a new one to host a shopping festival. The idea is to create online intellectual properties (IP) and to make them annual events,” said another media planner. Google and Facebook charge advertisers on a “per click” basis that ranges between 50 paise to Rs 100 and Rs 2 to Rs 20, respectively, “depending on the customer-targeting options that they choose,” said the planner.

This is another festival for the Facebook users and can even do shopping along with social networking.