Facebook to launch first ever office in Africa

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Africa has a population of more than a billion people, and of those, 120 million are on Facebook.

Of course, stats like that won’t have escaped the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, with the words “growth potential” likely ringing loudly in his ears every time he sees them. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that he has been looking at ways to bolster Facebook’s user base in the region, Digitaltrends.com reports.

The strategy includes the impending July opening of the social networking giant’s first office on the continent, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The operation will be led by Nunu Ntshingila, who also runs ad agency Ogilvy & Mather in the country.

Highlighting the importance of the region to Facebook, Nicola Mendelsohn, the company’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, told Bloomberg, “This is one of the places where our next billion users are coming from. It would be a massive missed opportunity. Africa matters.”