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The move makes sense considering the country is one of the most active countries for social media use in the entire world

Maligayang Pagdating Facebook!

The social media giant announced late yesterday it is official opening of an office in the Philippines — finally creating a physical presence in one of the world’s most active countries for social media participation.

The office will be located in Manila.

“Our team has already been partnering closely with businesses – small and large – in the Philippines; and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to grow together with our partners there. ‪#‎FB4PH‬,” wrote Dan Neary, Vice President for Asia Pacific on his Facebook wall in announcing the opening. 

Neary pointed to 49 million users, which he said represents 91 per cent of the country’s Internet population. He also pointed out that two of every three Filipinos are connected to a business page via Facebook

Today, Neary posted a Facebook Live video previewing the official launch. In it he explained,

“A huge portion of [Filipinon engagement] is mobile. There are more mobile phones in the Philippines than there actually are people and if you look at Facebook, over 90 per cent of people are coming into Facebook on a mobile device. So it’s a big deal.”

Watch the entire video below.

Digs Dimagiba, formerly Head for Mobile Business for Samsung Philippines, will take charge of the new operations as Head of Philippines for Facebook.

One interesting move to watch is how, or if, the office will affect Facebook’s Free Basics initiative in the Philippines. Rappler, a well-known Philippine media company and utiliser of Free Basics has been open about using the service to reach more people across the country.

Free Basics came to a crashing end in its most prominent country, India, after the telecommunications regulator banned zero rating strategies that allowed service providers to offer different charges for various data services.

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Photo posted by Dan Neary on his announcement post.

The post It’s more fun in the Philippines: Facebook opens Manila office appeared first on e27.

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