Facebook will be opening its regional office in Johannesburg, South Africa next month.
Bloomberg reports that the move by the social network is to allow it capture the vast growth potential that the continent has. The African operations of Facebook will be headed by Nunu Ntshingila, chairman of the WPP Plc’s Ogilvy & Mather agency in South Africa.
“This is one of the places where our next billion users are coming from,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “It would be a massive missed opportunity. Africa matters.”
The report indicates that Facebook will be partnering telcos in the region to gain support for its Internet.org app which will zero-rate Facebook and a couple of other websites.
Africa seems to be the next big market and social networks are scrambling to get a sizeable chunk of the continent’s next billion users. Last week, the microblogging platform, Twitter announced it was hiring an Associate Partnership Manager for Twitter Africa to help the region’s media partnership team across multiple verticals.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
