Umang Bedi is new head of Facebook India

Facebook, the global online social networking service, said it had appointed Umang Bedi, former head at Adobe India, managing director of its operations in this country.

Bedi, earlier MD for Adobe in South Asia, would succeed Kirthiga Reddy. She moves to America to take a global role at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Bedi, an engineering graduate from the University of Pune and an alumnus of Harvard Business School, would assume the charge from July.

Facebook said Bedi would lead in building and maintaining relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country. “Facebook is where people and businesses connect on mobile and with close to 150 million monthly active people in India, we see significant opportunities to help Indian business deliver in the mobile world,” it said.

Facebook works with about 85 per cent of the top 100 advertisers in India identified by Kantar, the media measurement and research entity. All those advertisers use video within their Facebook campaigns in India.

Bedi’s appointment comes as Facebook increasingly looks at monetising its platform in the country, leveraging its huge user base, second largest outside America.

Another challenge would be improving the company's image in the minds of users and other stakeholders, after its pet project of 'Free Basics' failed regulatory hurdles earlier this year.

In her new role at Facebook headquarters, Reddy will manage a set of global brands. She will also lead efforts in emerging markets for their global accounts team, which manages Facebook's relationships with the world's largest advertisers, the company said.