Facebook finally appointed a new country head for its Indonesia office – Sri Widowati.
Widowati replaced previous country manager Anand Tilak, who had left the position sometime in 2015 for a different role at Facebook’s regional headquarters in Singapore.
Facebook now counts 82 million users in Indonesia.
So after a gap of a few months, there’s a new face heading up Facebook in this country of 250 million people. Indonesia is Facebook’s fourth largest user base in the world, after the US, India, and Brazil. Facebook says it now has 82 million users in Indonesia, 94 percent of whom connect to the social network through a mobile phone. Instagram, also part of Facebook, counts 22 million users in the archipelago.
One of the issues Widowati will have to deal with is the tightening grip of the government on foreign internet companies in Indonesia. Tech minister Rudiantara this month urged all internet companies that offer services in Indonesia to obtain permanent local business licenses and file taxes, though they will be given time to adapt to the new rules.
Consumer product marketing pro
Sri Widowati joins Facebook from cosmetics giant Garnier, where she was the head of marketing and development for ASEAN. Before that, she was at Unilever. Her career in consumer goods marketing spans 20 years, but this, it seems, will be her first role at an internet company.
That’s a very different appointment than the one Twitter made for its head of Indonesia. Roy Simangunsong’s career is closely linked with the rise of the digital economy and took him from Microsoft to IBM and Yahoo before joining Twitter.
Malavika Velayanikal and Steven Millward
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