Social networking pioneer Friendster has opened a pivotal new office in Sydney, which will be helmed by global CEO Richard Kimber. The move is part of an Asia Pacific wide expansion drive which includes the opening of an office in Singapore and increase in head count across Asia Pac.
The opening of the Sydney office signals a return to Australia for Kimber, who was based in Sydney from 2006-2008 as Google’s managing director of South –East Asia covering Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Korea. Kimber left the Googleplex in August to take up the key role with Friendster to drive the monetization strategy of the social network of around 75 million users, most of which are based in Asia particularly the Philippines, Indoensia and Malaysia.
Staffing numbers for the Sydney office have yet to be revealed but hires are taking place across marketing, sales and business development areas, The foundation Sydney office employee is the former Terchnolgy editor at BRW and online analyst at Frost & Sullivan Foad Fadaghi who joined Friendster late last year as director of marketing and research. The new Singapore office is also currently hiring for sales, marketing and business development teams. While Pixel Media, an advertising sales network in Asia, has been appointed the exclusive sales partner for Friendster in Singapore. Friendster’s headquarters have also shifted from San Francisco, to Mountain View with the lion’s share of employees now based in the Asia Pacific region. The company said that about 85% of new hires going forward will be based there. “The expansion of our team, offices and sales partnerships in Asia not only sets 2009 up to be an exciting year, but helps us pursue the necessary monetisation opportunities available to Friendster in our core Asian markets,” said Kimber.
Friendster has appointed four new agencies in Asia Pac to accelerate its local advertising sales efforts.
