The office is located at the capital’s commercial centre, KL Sentral.
Facebook Southeast Asia managing director Kenneth Bishop said the launch of its office here marked a milestone for Facebook in Malaysia.
Facebook Asia Pacific vice president Dan Neary said the establishment of the local office is to facilitate companies and businesses in Malaysia in marketing their businesses through the platform provided by Facebook.
Both Bishop and Neary were speaking at a press conference held during its launching ceremony. The launch party event was held at the [email protected] today.
“We are committed to helping Malaysians and businesses connect in more meaningful ways. Our local team in Malaysia will be focused on helping businesses tap into this unprecedented opportunity to connect with todays mobile- first consumers,” Neary said.
The launch event also saw Nicole Tan, who is the former managing director with J. Walter Thompson Malaysia, announced as Facebook’s Head of Malaysia.
She said Malaysian Facebook users are an active and ‘mobile-first’ community.
Southeast Asia is the fastest growing region for Facebook and Malaysia, a mobile-first country with a mobile penetration rate of 144 per cent, is driving the growth.
Neary said that Malaysia had more than 18 million Facebook users and 6.5 million people on Instagram.
Malaysians also rank 10th globally for the number of friends, which is 60 per cent more than the global average and spend more time watching videos on their smartphones than consumers in any other country in Southeast Asia.
“In this regard we would like to offer marketing services, advertising and consumer access to businesses and companies in Malaysia so they can grab this opportunity to further expand their business.
“In Malaysia, 94 per cent of people discover products and brands on Facebook, and 62 per cent make a purchase after discovery,” Neary said.
Neary said that Facebook will also cooperate with the relevant agencies in the country to help entrepreneurs expand their businesses.
According to statistics, an average of 77 per cent of Facebook users in Malaysia follow at least one business site, 94 per cent of consumers discover products and brands on Facebook, while 62 per cent make their purchase after the discovery.
He also said Facebook will be offering training and legal platform for businesses and companies through its blueprint services soon.
The opening of the local office is part of its expansion in the region following the launch of the Philippines office in Manila last month.
Each month, 241 million people use Facebook across Southeast Asia, 94 per cent of them via mobile while globally, 1.65 billion people now use Facebook.
Photo-sharing platform Instagram, which the company owns, has over 400 million users. It was acquired by Facebook for approximately US$1 billion in April 2012.
Last year, PTLM reported that Internet giant Google opened a brand new larger Malaysian office at Menara 1 Sentrum in KL Sentral.
The Malaysian headquarters of The Priceline Group-owned Agoda.com is also located in the same building.