Facebook ‘likes’ Dubai

Dubai will add a new first to its name after the official opening of the first regional Facebook office at Dubai Internet City. The announcement was made by senior Facebook officials on Wednesday at a Press briefing in Burj Armani. “Today is a very exciting day for Facebook. We are delighted to announce our opening in Dubai and this is going to be our first office in the region,” said Joanna Shields, Vice-President and Managing Director for Facebook in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The new office is aimed at engaging local businesses in making better use of Facebook as a marketing platform and reaching wider audiences, while continuing to improve the user experience. She added, “in an open and connected world, more and more companies are realising that Facebook is the place where they can build strong connections with their customers. We are here to share our experience and learn from the many talented, creative people in this part of the globe.” Nearly one in seven people across the world use Facebook as half a billion people connect on the social platform with status updates, photo-sharing and fan pages. Popular consumer brands like Emirates, Starbucks and Pepsi have used the site to reach hundreds of thousands of consumers worldwide. “The opportunity for businesses and brands to interact and connect with this large online community is great and we are here to help unlock the marketing potential,” said Jonathan Labin, Head of Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook MENA. The office will start operations with three staff as the company will look at increasing advertising revenues and building new partnerships in the region. Facebook started operations in February 2004. Today, the platform has more than 900 million active monthly users as some 45 million users are from the Middle East region.