Facebook India MD Umang Bedi steps down

In just over 15 months of joining Facebook as India MD, Umang Bedi has resigned from his position at the social networking giant.

Sources close to Bedi said he may be starting a venture on his own. Sandeep Bhushan has been appointed as the interim Managing Director. Bhushan was earlier with Samsung as IT and mobile business director. He currently handles the new revenue streams from FMCG advertisers for Facebook.

Facebook had roped in Bedi as its Managing Director, India from Adobe where he served as Managing Director of the South Asia region. He had taken over from Kirthiga Reddy, who returned to the US to take on a new role at the company’s headquarters at Menlo Park.

Bedi joined Facebook at a time when the social networking giant was embroiled in a controversy around its Free Basic initiative, which offered free connectivity to select internet services in several parts of the country. Facebook was forced to drop the initiative after howls of protest.

Under Bedi, Facebook launched a similar but less controversial project called Express Wi-Fi initiative wherein the company partners with telecom companies, internet service providers, and local entrepreneurs to help expand connectivity to under-served locations.

Under this programme, internet is provided starting 10 a day to users in remote parts of the country and there is no restriction on the kind of content they want to consume, unlike in Free Basics.

Facebook also saw a big increase in subscriber base under Bedi’s tenure, partly boosted by the launch of Reliance Jio’s 4G services in the country and drop in data prices across operators.

Facebook had over 142 million Monthly Active Users as of March 2016, which jumped to 201 Monthly Active Users as of July, adding over 50 million users in just the first six months of 2017. India has now become the largest market for Facebook, beating its home turf US.

“We confirm that Umang Bedi will be leaving his role and Facebook at the end of this year. He’s built a really strong team and business during his time with us, and we wish him all the best,” Facebook said in a statement.

Source: The Hindu Business Line