Social networking site Facebook is to open an office in India, joining a long list of international firms that have looked to tap a skilled workforce that provides support services at relatively cheap wages.
Facebook's office in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad will support users, advertisers and developers in India and around the world, the company said in a statement today.
Hyderabad also houses other foreign firms, including Internet powerhouse Google and software giant Microsoft, whose Indian employees work on everything from writing software codes to providing customer services at cheaper salaries than in developed nations such as the United States.
Facebook has emerged as one of the internet's most popular destinations, challenging established players like Yahoo Inc and Google.
The site has about 400 million users and has had large investments from Microsoft and from Russian investment company Digital Sky Technologies.
More than 8 million of Facebook's total users are in India, the company's director of global online operations, Don Faul, said in a post on the Facebook blog. Facebook will initially recruit a small team in India, and anticipates further growth as the office expands.
Some 70 per cent of the people using Facebook are outside the United States and are accessing the service from more than 70 languages, he said.
Facebook's office in Hyderabad will supplement operations supported out Dublin, Palo Alto, California, and a recently announced location in Austin, Texas.
"By having multiple support centers in a variety of time zones, we can provide better round-the-clock, multi-lingual support," Mr Faul said.
Facebook has increased its focus on its financial performance. In September, Facebook said it had become free-cash-flow positive - meaning that the company makes enough money to cover the costs associated with running the service - ahead of schedule.
Internet search engines run by Google and Microsoft are increasingly interested in incorporating the growing trove of user-generated content from social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter into their search results in a bid to boost online advertising revenue.