India the next big thing for Facebook: India chief Kirthiga Reddy says India is ... - Economic Times ~ Electronic Gadgets

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NEW DELHI: She's the India head of a global firm that celebrates its 10th anniversary this week, and the company's founder is a tech icon who says India is the next big thing for his business. She appears confident the Indian market can deliver what the boss wants.

Kirthiga Reddy (42), Facebook's India chief, says her challenge is to make Indian firms see Facebook as a mass media, not social media. "That's the shift that I see, that's the kind of conversation I have with Indian CEOs and CMOs," Reddy says.

"Zuck ( Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder) sees India as a key market...a large market for our monetisation drive, a lead market for emerging economy models," says Reddy, who joined the company in July 2010. "What we learn in India, we implement elsewhere," she adds.

FB's India numbers are impressive: 93 million users, second only to the US user base, and as many as 75 million of these are on mobile (December 2013). Given FB's globally announced emphasis on exploiting the mobile platform, FB India seems to have the right kind of platform.

Facebook, as a company, started operations in India about four years ago and Reddy came on board when the user base was a mere 8 million in the country.

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Facebook adds about 2 million new users a month in India and offers services in nine languages.

But just as FB is answering questions on the eve of its 10th anniversary about its business model, Reddy has a battle on her hands - to make a user base that may soon reach 100 million attractive enough for businesses.

She seems very confident: "I know 18 months from now it will be a different media landscape and Facebook is going to be a key part of fuelling that change." The India head, who has 2,000 FB friends, argues companies and brands across categories will adopt the platform. She gives examples.

"There are over a million advertisers on Facebook globally, a very significant milestone for us to reach. We don't share country-specific numbers. But I can see different genres of advertisers coming. Coca-Cola India did significant launches with us last year. Yepme, an online fashion retailer, used Facebook and got 4.5 times returns on ad-sales dollars. Small businesses such as Pigtales and Ponys - two college students in Bangalore started this hair accessories company - leveraged Facebook and it became a business on its own."

"Whether it is Nitin Paranjpae (former chief of HUL) or Srini (CVL Srinivas) from GroupM or other media planners, the first thing they want to know is how to use the platform. They want to be educated. A lot of companies have been using Facebook for fan engagement and that is valuable in itself. We have studies that show fans buy 1.9 times more than non-fans. However, fans are a small percentage of the target audience. FB as a whole is a valuable platform."

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