Facebook is set to launch its first African office in Johannesburg this July in a move to drive its product offerings on the continent and as well sign up partnerships and businesses from various local and multinational corporations according to people with information.
In January 2014, a team from Facebook had a Pan-African tour and made a stop at Konga and we all thought they were scouting for a city to set up shop. Of course Nigeria has all it takes to play host to Facebook but the 12 member team led by London-based Nichola Mendelsohn; Head of Facebook, Europe, Middle East and Africa were on business to see more active users on the continent especially big shops like Konga which had 800,000 Facebook fans then.
Setting up an office in Africa will help Facebook connect ad work with the continent’s biggest advertisers, ad agencies, and institutions on meeting their advertising needs. Being on ground will help the firm understand the local market in each individual country and tailor its products for each market.
Recently, a report by Reuters said that Facebook’s overseas markets brought in an over 51% of the firm’s global ad sales in the first quarter and growth in Asia stood at 57% and fastest in the world. Major firms, and not just Facebook are looking at international markets for growth where the firm is helping get more users online via its Internet.org platform. Facebook has offices in Hong Kong and Indonesia and coming to Africa opens doors for the firm to take over the market before its too late.
