Her name is Kirthiga Reddy. And after leading Facebook's global sales efforts in india for 6 years, she announced last month that she'll be stepping down from the post. Kirthiga Reddy is cited as being the first Facebook employee in India, and primarily worked with India-based advertisers wanting to connect with Facebook users in India. This announcement came in the wake of a hotly-debated issue between Facebook and India: the Free Basics debacle.
Free Basics was a plan for Facebok to offer limited free internet in India which would consist of access to just a few websites, including Facebook. Though this would have been offered at absolutely no cost to any user, a government regulator in India pushed forward a an on the program. Though Facebook released a statement that Reddy had absolutely no involvement in the program, it's almost certain that she is stepping down as a result of the issue, which has drawn a harsh spotlight onto Facebook's business and initiatives in India.
It's worth noting that India has approximately 130 million Facebook users, second only in number to the U.S., and it's well known that developing areas with large populations such as India represent the largest markets of new potential users for social media companies like Facebook. It's this fact which informed the ban on the Free Basics plan, which was considered predatory, and would no doubt have guaranteed a massive expansion of the Facebook user base and offering immense revenue opportunities to its already substantial advertising segment.
Reddy's announcement to step down from the position indicated that she would be leaving the position more formally within a year, and declined to comment about what opportunities she might pursue specifically. However, she raised the possibility that she may simply move to work for Facebook's headquarters in California, and noted that the move to the U.S. was always a part of her family's future plans. She noted an intention to enroll her children in U.S. schools, and was reached by Forbes contributors for commentary on the issue.
But Facebook has long had difficulty luring Indian advertisers, and has often had to resort to upselling, according to a 2015 report by Reuters. Additional free email support, on-hand staff advisors, a facebook analytics tool, and other perks all together were insufficient to boost its advertising sales in 2015. Many of these perks have been offered to help make returns on Facebook advertising campaigns more transparent, as at present many advertisers use specialized analytics providers to view more data about their campaigns. Though Reddy's departure is assumed to many to be related to the recent Facebook debacle, it may have far more to do with Facebook's advertising problem in India.
Compared to the $7 or $8 Facebook nets on advertising to each of its U.S. users, its average advertising income from Indian users is approximately 15 cents. Analysts have estimated those revenues at about $60 million a year, again, significantly less than estimated the $1.05 billion it earns in advertising in the U.S. per year through similar advertising. Considering that India is its second-largest market, it's a big gap. And many attribute that gap to Facebook's biggest competitor for online advertising: Google.
Google had a foothold in India almost six years before Facebook, and the broad suspicion is that many potential Indian advertisers default to Google's options because they're more familiar. Others cite the strong presence of local television and televised local ads, which are more a fixture of Indian culture, and a declining one in the Americas. Television still has significant reach, and some individuals interviewed by Reuters correspondents noted that they would prefer to advertise on tv spots.
Facebook has not released how many staffers it has in India, or how much it has invested in Indian operations; but they did note that though the start of their ramp-up in efforts to secure additional Facebook ad clients has been slow, results have been positive, and has even designed India-specific advertising opportunities.
