• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 9, 2017

On the heels of another strong earnings report, Facebook has more good news: FB Lite has surpassed 200 million active users.

The social giant debuted the low bandwidth version of its app in 2015 to expand its network beyond those consumers with access to high-speed broadband networks.  

“Lite” has also proven to be a boon to small businesses, according to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

“FB Lite is helping business owners grow and reach customers on mobile even when bandwidth is at a minimum,” Sandberg said in a new post.

International expansion is clearly part of Facebook’s long-term business strategy, but such efforts have not been easy. For instance, following a string of negative news from India, Kirthiga Reddy stepped down as Facebook’s regional managing director last year.

Earlier in the year, Indian telecom regulators decided to block Facebook’s Free Basics Web service as part of a ruling in favor of Net neutrality.

The move made good on a threat issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India -- an independent regulator of the country’s telecom industry -- in late 2015.

Meanwhile, in late 2015, Egyptian authorities also pulled the plug on the free Internet service for reasons that they never fully articulated.