MUMBAI: The Mark Zuckerberg-headed company has recently reportedly elevated its India media partnerships head, Saurabh Doshi, to a wider APAC role. Based out of Singapore, he will have oversee entertainment partnerships for all of Asia Pacific, including South East Asia, Japan, Korea, China and ANZ.

Even as no external announcement has been made, Doshi has been seen more out of India than in India recently. We reached out to the company but received no comments; however, some of his clients indeed confirmed the promotion to Indiantelevision.com. From India to Asian responsibilities is a jump that Martin Sorrell’s WPP and Unilever have often given to their executives in the past and this could be an interesting trend in the digital world going forward.

Sources reveal that Doshi’s core focus will be to manage strategic relationships with some of the biggest media organisations and public celebrities in the region along with working closely with studios, TV networks and creators in the entertainment space, leveraging the Facebook platform to maximise specific objectives and increasing engagement on the platform. Given all the success YouTube has had with creators, this will be an important space

The appointment comes as an important step for the social media platform since APAC today is the fastest growing and the most happening market for most digital companies and is super critical for growth and the future.

Doshi joined Facebook in 2014 as the head of media partnership driving growth in videos and time spent on content on the platform and has been credited with various achievements since then. Some of them have been in unique product offerings in India, especially focused on video and instant articles, which a client mentioned have been two products on the forefront for India given the growth in the ecosystem here.

A source mentioned focus is on the media side, especially solving language content problems given its importance and the mega $600 million bid for IPL by Facebook. Recently, there has been news of a deep partnership with the launch of Vice in India.

Facebook globally has been partnering deeply with news publishers and the same has been the case in India looking at media case studies published on its website which Doshi has been leading along with his team.

Apparently, the company hasn’t decided who will step into Doshi’s shoes but the careers site shows hiring of a VP for India to head its India operations.

Facebook has a worldwide presence, except in China. A source close to the development mentioned that FB has been focusing a lot on videos specially with its video platform WATCH, for premium shows and content in the US and it is expected this team will roll it out in APAC as well.