Facebook to open S'pore office soon?

Social networking giant Facebook is looking for potential job candidates in Singapore as it preps to open an office in the country.

Vacancies for "our yet-to-be-established Singapore office" include positions for head of sales, account executive, ad operations associate and direct sales organization account manager, according to Facebook's Web site. There is also a Malaysia-based job opening for a position in its software engineer department.

A Marketing-Interactive report on Wednesday noted that Facebook had registered under the name Facebook Singapore with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), and listed Millenia Tower as its local corporate address in the ACRA listing.

If established, the Singapore office will be Facebook's second Asian office.

The company last month announced plans to open its first Asian office in Hyderabad, India.

This is not Facebook's first venture in the Singapore. Back in 2008, the social network had appointed Singapore-based iHub Media as its sales representative.

When contacted, iHub COO George Foo declined to comment on Facebook's business strategy for the region but stressed that his company is currently still the Facebook's official sales partner in Asia.

Since taking over display advertisements from Microsoft, Facebook has turned its focus to engagement ads, which COO Sheryl Sandberg said last September would allow consumers to "engage with marketers directly with the ads themselves".

The company in recent months has faced harsh criticism for making frequent changes to its privacy policies, including its announcement last month to allow third-party sites access to user data without specific permission from the users.

In a ZDNet Asia report last week, a Singapore-based lawyer cautioned companies against using Facebook for commercial use due to the constant tweaks to the site's privacy policies.