Sri Widowati

Country Director, Facebook Indonesia

- Shintya Felicitas

SRI WIDOWATI, 51, has a big job as the country director in Indonesia of Facebook. She must manage not only Facebook but also its local operations of Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The stakes are high for Wido, as she is known. Indonesia is Facebook’s fourth market, according to We Are Social research, and also one of the fastest growing worldwide, according to Facebook data. Facebook in Indonesia has 115 milion active users, and Facebook is one of the most-visited sites by Indonesians. For Instagram, Indonesia is its third largest market in the world (and largest in Asia) with 45 million active users. Indonesia is also the world’s biggest producer of Instastory.

The social media giant has previously faced feedback that it undervalued the country because, despite being a major user base for the site, had no country director here (it was previously managed from a regional base). The relationship improved significantly when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Indonesia for the first time in 2014 and opened an office here. Indonesian President Joko Widodo returned the favor by visiting Facebook’s offices in Silicon Valley in 2016. In the same year, Wido was also appointed, becoming the first Indonesian in the job.