The world’s largest social networking website Facebook says it plans to more than double the size of its Irish operation, including its workforce, within the next 12 months.
At the official opening of its new European headquarters on Dublin’s Hanover Quay today, the company said it planned to increase its investment in Ireland in order to scale up its operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Facebook’s European operations have been headquartered in Dublin since October 2008, and the Dublin office employs more than 70 staff.
The company said it expected to double the size of its Irish business within the next year and that it was hiring in several areas including user operations, online operations, advertising sales, advertising campaign delivery, finance and engineering.
The company estimates it has one million users in Ireland alone and more than 300 million users around the world.
Facebook’s chief financial officer David Ebersman said the Irish expansion would enable the company “to better address the often complex advertising, cultural and lingual elements of our global business.”
Seapking at today's opening, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said: “This is an exciting investment for our country, hosting the leader in social networking.
“Facebook has fast become a worldwide name, and it is a fabulous endorsement that Ireland can satisfy the needs of such highly innovative and technologically advanced companies as they make critical investments,” she said.