Meta opens first standalone Asia office in Gurugram

Meta or, as it was formerly known, Facebook has unveiled its new office in Gurugram, inaugurated by Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. This is one of the first new offices to be opened following Facebook announcing its new identity as Meta. This new Gururgram office is also one of Meta’s “largest office spaces” as the company said, and the first standalone facility in Asia.

The new Meta office is going to host the Centre for Fuelling India’s New Economy (C-FINE) which is going to be “dedicated to training and skilling India’s small business owners, creators, entrepreneurs and local communities to enable them to both fuel and leverage the digital transformation underway in the country”. Meta also announced “an ambitious goal of training 1 crore small businesses and entrepreneurs and 2,50,000 creators in the next three years”.

“We see this office as an opportunity for us to build a space that will house our largest team in the country. The office will be open to anyone who is driving change – be it creators, small business owners, entrepreneurs, artists or community leaders. The spaces here will see directed, purposeful efforts from Meta to fuel their pursuits, ideas and ambition,’’ said Ajit Mohan, Vice-President & Managing Director, Facebook India (Meta).

Meta said that it has been working on many India-first products and initiatives, like Reels, Live-Rooms, and Payments on WhatsApp, and C-FINE is the latest addition to that list.

As the company announced, C-FINE will “showcase the impact of new technologies” and have a dedicated area for “demonstrating how technologies like AR and VR can play a transformative role in sectors such as learning and education, commerce and healthcare”. It will also help facilitate community impact programs around important issues such as safety training for women and children, the company added.

“I hope initiatives like C-FINE, where technology is being positioned to fuel entrepreneurship and innovation and empower youngsters all around the country, take their dreams & create critical mass, size and scale. This is exactly what the power of the Internet and technology should be,” said Chandrasekhar speaking at the event. BusinessToday