Facebook announced today that it will open an office in Taipei, marking the social network’s thirteenth disclosed branch location in Asia Pacific. The office will be used to help local businesses reach target consumers.
“The set-up of the Facebook Taiwan office will increase the level of support Taiwan clients and agencies will get,” says Jayne Leung, head of Greater China at Facebook, in a prepared statement. “We recognize the potential and opportunities that Taiwan presents and are looking forward to working closly with Taiwan businesses, partners and the government to help local businesses grow.”
Leung tells Tech in Asia that Facebook “started out in Greater China” a few years ago with the opening of a Hong Kong office, and has traveled to Taiwan periodically to support clients. “With the support we now have from these clients and agencies, we know that having a team based here will benefit and help us be closer to our clients and agencies,” she says.
Taiwanese tech blog Inside conducted an interview with Dan Neary, vice president for Asia Pacific at Facebook, to learn more about the social network’s plans for the island. According to Neary, Facebook has three general motives for establishing the local office – educational outreach, ad sales, and improving developer relationships. He adds that Facebook’s flagship social network has 15 million monthly active users, 65 percent of whom use it daily.
In the past, Facebook sold ad space to Taiwanese businesses through licensed resellers – most notably Cacafly, which for a time had an exclusive contract with the social network. Inside says that starting this year, Facebook will begin selling ads directly to buyers. We’ve reached out to Cacafly for comments on how Facebook’s arrival might impact its business (Update: “no comment”).
Across Asia, Facebook has staffed operations in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Korea, India, and Japan. Reports have also surfaced stating the company has leased an office space in Beijing, where it will work to build its presence in mainland China. The company has still yet to publicly confirm this development, however.
This piece has been updated to include comments from Facebook.
See: Facebook hits 449M monthly active users in Asia, monetizes $1.27 per person
Editing by Paul Bischoff, top image by Fish at Taipei
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