With video push, Meta's new Gurugram office gets a production studio

As the freshly rebranded Meta (formerly Facebook) ramps up its focus on video content creation on Facebook and Instagram to drive user engagement and advertising revenues, the company has set up a production studio at its new office in Gurugram.

The studio, open to content creators and small business owners already on its platforms for clicking pictures, shooting videos and filming Instagram and Facebook Lives, is a part of its skilling hub called 'Centre for Fuelling India's New Economy'.

"Not only is videos, a growing area for us overall, but we're also continuing to get better at monetising it. More than 60 per cent of video revenue now comes from mobile-first video, meaning videos that are shot vertically or are under 15 seconds. Over 2 billion people per month now watch videos that are eligible for In-Stream ads, which are ads shown before, during or after videos. And we're expanding access to Reels ads on Instagram to more advertisers with automatic placement and new creative formats," Meta Inc. COO Sheryl Sandberg had said at the tech giant's Q3 earnings call in October 2021.

In India, particularly, the company has reported a 41 per cent jump in its annual gross advertising revenue at Rs 9,326 crore as of March 2021, according to its filing with the Registrar of Companies. The firm makes money by displaying advertisements on its platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Messenger) targeted at its users based on their history on its platforms.

As the company increases its focus on India, its single largest market with more than 500 million users of its family of apps, it is also reportedly expanding office space in Mumbai. It has a total of five office locations (Gurugram, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata) in India.

Meta's new office in Gurugram, a step-up of the single-floor office it earlier had in another location in the same city, is its largest in India at 1.3 lakh square feet. It can house around 800 employees of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, although most of them continue to work from home with the option of coming in when they want to. This reporter, who got to stroll around the polygonal, glass-encased, open-plan office, found it to be brimming with every bit of the cool and relaxed vibe expected of a new-age company. It is replete with a game room, nursing centre, colourful artwork and quirkily named conference rooms like Chai & Kaapi.

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