Facebook Chooses Hyderabad as Asian Operations Base

Mar. 17 – The social networking site Facebook has chosen the central Indian city of Hyderabad as its first Asian center. The unit will support its growing number of global users, handle advertising, and provide 24 hour multi-lingual technical support to its estimated 400 million active users worldwide; of which 8 million are in India. Facebook now claims around 70 percent of its users from outside U.S. borders.

Hyderabad is fast becoming India’s IT hub, with companies such as Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, and IBM already established in the city. The move to India comes amidst interesting times in China, where social networking is heavily censored and many sites are banned. Google, for example, despite being the world’s largest search engine, seems poised to pull out of the China market following conflicts with Beijing over censorship and allegations of hacking.

India meanwhile, with cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore, looks set to pick up the global IT services industry baton that China seems to refuse to want to deal with on political grounds.

Dezan Shira & Associates can advice foreign investors about setting up operations in Hyderabad and other Indian cities. Please email India@dezshira.com.