FACEBOOK said today it would open its first office in India to help it tap the increasing popularity of social networking via the internet in the country.

The office will be located in Hyderabad and work along similar lines to other operation centres in the US and Ireland, with online advertising and support teams.

Facebook’s director of global online operations, Don Faul, wrote on the firm’s blog: “In India alone, we’ve seen rapid growth and now have more than eight million people there actively connecting on Facebook."

Social networking has taken off in India, with Facebook and Google's Orkut both popular, particularly in urban areas where internet access is increasing.

The new office is part of Facebook’s strategy of having support centres around the world in different time zones providing round-the-clock support in multiple languages.

“Seventy per cent of the people using Facebook are outside the US and are accessing the service from more than 70 languages,” added Faul.