Facebook opens office in Russia

[Kshasty]

The online international social network Facebook is to open an office in Moscow and start talks with local mobile phone operators as part of a project to expand operations in Russia, a Russian business daily said on Friday.

With over 400 million users, Facebook is the world's largest social network. Its main competitor, My Space opened a Russian office in 2009 but closed it because of spending cuts.

Experts say Facebook is likely to cooperate with the three major Russian mobile operators, MTS, VimpelCom and Megafon. The site already has around 100 partners among mobile phone operators worldwide.

Leading UK multinational mobile network operator Vodafone launched free Facebook SMS alerts and a Mobile Text service in December 2009.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100409/158494575.html