Facebook Opens Toronto HQ, Says 21 Million Canadian Users

Facebook officially opened its new Canadian headquarters in Toronto yesterday, and Mobile Syrup sat down with Jordan Banks, managing director of Facebook and Instagram Canada, to touch down on various topics such as user base, VR, and more.

Recent market studies have already highlighted the accelerated pace at which Facebook is growing worldwide, and Canada no exception. Here, Facebook has 21 million users out of an addressable Internet population of 29 million, 18 million of whom access the social media platform on mobile, so it’s not surprising that the majority of Facebook’s global revenue is generated on mobile devices, Banks said.

As for the Instagram user base, Banks says there are 7 million users in the country. He didn’t go into much detail about Messenger users, but it is known that there are 900 million users worldwide.

At its Canadian headquarters, Facebook employs 75 people, but there are other, smaller offices in Ottawa, Vancouver, and Montreal.

When asked about why virtual reality is important to Facebook’s future, Bank pointed to the increased demand for video content, which triggered the “what’s next?” question. From here, Facebook sees VR as “the next way to truly immerse yourself in engaging and compelling content.”

The second thing that we think a lot about is, “what is the next true computing platform where we will help build and facilitate an ecosystem?” In talking to very smart, young people at universities and startups, they all fundamentally believe that VR is the next big thing. The next big computing platform. So you put those two things together and it was a natural bet for us to place… we are just getting started.

To read the full interview click here.