By SHELLEY SINGH & CHAITALI CHAKRAVARTY/ The Economic Times

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. 

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 countryspecific 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.” 

Reddy says FB India’s appeal to companies is its ability to deliver specific targets. “We are effective and efficient because of our ability to do targeted ads. For example, when Samsung did its Note 3 launch last quarter, they used different creatives for men and women on Facebook. Brands can’t do this on television or in print. Another example is the launch of Nokia 205, where through Facebook, the company targeted the feature phone users with a customised message because they were most likely to upgrade to the new model.”