It’s full speed ahead for Facebook in India. The company’s new office in the country is supposed to open within two months, and when it is running at full capacity, reports indicate that the office is supposed to accommodate a whopping 500 or so employees.
True, 500 individuals isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things. But since the two other offices Facebook recently announced are supposed to provide space for just 200 and 30 employees (in Austin and Seattle, respectively), and the company only has in the neighborhood of 1,300 employees overall, this would represent a huge move for Facebook.
On to one source of India-related info, then. The Economic Times contacted "a senior official of the state Information Technology Department," and reported afterward, "Social networking site Facebook is all set to launch its India operations from Hyderabad in less than two months."
Also, "The official said that Facebook has been allotted about 50,000 sq ft space and is going to recruit close to 500 people for running its operations."
It should be interesting to see what happens next. Facebook might at least take anywhere from a few months to a couple years to hire that many employees, making this a less remarkable development.
If not, some exciting things are likely in store for the social network, since adding so many individuals to its workforce would almost have to correlate to a major project or two.