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Facebook has been making a lot of efforts to expand internationally, and that continues today with the promise of a new team in France starting with one guy.

"Today, I'm happy to announce our first employee in France, Damien Vincent," writes Blake Chandlee on the Facebook Blog. "Over the next few months, Damien will be building a sales team in Paris in recognition of the increasing desire by companies in France and nearby countries to make advertising on Facebook a part of their growth strategy. Companies such as Peugeot and Dell already have Facebook ad campaigns running in France, helping people discover new products, explore ideas and share with their friends."

Doug Caverly reported on Facebook's international growth last week, citing some data from O'Reilly radar:

According to Ben Lorica, there's been a 17 percent rate of change in North America over the last 12 weeks, but only Africa failed to tie or improve upon this number (showing a 15 percent rate of change).  Oceania, Central America and the Caribbean, Asia, South America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Europe generated rates of 17, 22, 32, 33, 45, and 49 percent, respectively.

 U.S. Share Of Facebook's User Base Shrinking
(Credit: O'Reilly Radar)

A couple months ago, Facebook announced it would be making Dublin the location for its international headquarters, but France has quite a solid user-base of its own. "While Facebook en Francais has its own flavor, we also embody the global connectedness of Facebook," says Chandlee. "Our average French user has 72 friends, of which more than a dozen live in other European countries, the United States or additional international locations. We feel more closely connected to friends all over the world because of Facebook."

I would expect to see increasing international operations from Facebook over the coming year, making Facebook truly a global community.