Facebook Opens Australian Office

Sydney, Australia is now home to a Facebook office, according to fresh reports.  The social networking company hasn’t said too much, but seems to be both hiring new employees and seeking out advertising partners in the region. 

Paul Borrud, who was in charge of Facebook’s sales on the west coast of the U.S. and will now act as regional vice president at the new branch, went a ways towards confirming that second thought.  "We see a lot of opportunity in the Australian market as advertisers look to online media to promote their brands in favour of the more traditional advertising models," he stated according to Suzanne Tindal.

Borrud then continued, "With Facebook, businesses have the ability to go beyond simple click-throughs and interact with users through friend networks and all aspects of Facebook including applications and pages."

As for the personnel issue, unconfirmed rumors just put the number of open positions somewhere between six and ten.

This paints a picture of a Facebook that’s starting to be more interested in attracting advertisers than simply pushing into every corner of the globe.  It may be that the recession’s taught the company a lesson, or perhaps we’re drawing closer to the long-rumored Facebook IPO.