Illustration of Facebook headquarters at Grand Canal Square in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Facebook officially opened its new office in Jakarta at the 49th floor Capital Place office building, Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, on Monday.
Facebook Indonesia Country Director, Sri Widowati, said Facebook actually has been operating in Indonesia since 2014. Yet, their status as representative office made them unable to conduct operational activities.
"Investment here is a top priority, because Indonesia is a huge market," said Widowati at the newly-opened office.
"In Indonesia, our focus is on enacting communities and business, both massive and limited. We'll also build an ecosystem here," she added.
Widowati, however, did not want to mention how many local employees the company would hire for the new office. Nonetheless, according to her, the possibility to bring in experts from abroad to provide specific training was not slim.
Facebook's new office was officially opened after the social media giant established a permanent business entity (BUT) in the country.
Despite having the principle license granted since March 2017, the company still had to adjust the Indonesian Standard of Industrial Classification (KBLI) issued through the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).
According to Facebook's second quarter of 2017 data, social media users in Indonesia reached 115 million users where 97 percent of them were accessing the platform via mobile phones.
In addition, Indonesia is also ranked in the top 3 countries with the largest number of friends with 60 percent more comments than other countries and 3 times more uploaded content than the world's average.
The presence of new office and customer service in Indonesia will later facilitate the communication between social media platforms with The Communications and Information Ministry, particularly in dealing with negative contents.
(brl/red)
