Facebook opens office in India

HYDERABAD, INDIA: Online social networking major Facebook announced on Thursday the start of its operations in India by officially opening the doors of its Hyderabad office.

Apart for the initial landing team from its headquarters in Palo Alto, California, a team of recent hires from India are also working in the new office. The office is headed by a leadership team, including Kirthiga Reddy, director of online operations and head of office India and Manoj Varghese, director of user operations.

To celebrate the opening of the new space in Hyderabad, Facebook launched an art competition, which asks local artists to submit their proposals for original designs to decorate the office space. Beginning Thursday and continuing through October 22, 2010, artists can visit facebook.com/Facebook India to enter the contest. The winner will be announced on November 15, 2010.

The social networking has posed a serious challenge to social networking site Orkut.

“In a very real way, Facebook is a meaningful home to our 500 million users around the world: it’s where people share their lives with their family, their friends, their colleagues, and their neighbors. As we open our office in Hyderabad, we want to create a space that is reflective of Facebook’s home in India by decorating it with designs from local artists,” said Kirthiga.

Kirthiga said Facebook is seeing a ton of momentum with our 15 million users, developers and advertisers in India. “It’s an incredible time to be starting our operations in India.”

Speaking from Hyderabad, Don Faul, director of global online operations, said, “Facebook’s first official office in Palo Alto was decorated by a local artist from California’s West Coast. As we grow, it’s even more important that we complement our company’s traditions with new and fresh ideas.”