Facebook Opens First Office in Thailand, Says 34 Million Thais Use the Service

More than 34 million people in Thailand log into Facebook's 1.5-billion user network each month, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page.

Thai Facebook users are some of the most engaged, Sandberg wrote, posting online three times more than the global average.

Facebook is blocked out of China, the world's largest Internet market, but still experiences its fastest growth in Asia at 57 percent.

Earlier this month, Facebook said it has nearly 20 million users in major African markets Nigeria and Kenya, with the majority using mobile devices to access their profiles.

Facebook opened its first African office in Johannesburg in June as the continent's growing population and relatively low levels of internet access present a large untapped market for the social network to earn advertising revenue.

The numbers, the first Facebook has published for Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and Kenya, East Africa's most developed, show the two nations as important entry points on a continent of nearly one billion people.

Nigeria had 15 million monthly active users as of June 30 this year, all of them using mobiles to like, share and upload content on the social network. In Kenya, 95 percent of the 4.5 million monthly active users did so via mobiles.

South Africa has 12 million monthly active Facebook users, the data showed, and Facebook says with its strong advertising partnerships in Africa it would use the new office in Johannesburg to expand its business across the continent.

Edited by NDTV staff from original story by Reuters