Facebook and Arabic

A few days ago I blogged about my trip to the Facebook Advertising launch with Connect Ads.

I didn't mention one thing which made me wonder if Facebook really is doing its research. I hope Connect Ads corrects Mark Cowan.

During the Q&A session, I asked Mark Cowan and Trevor Johnson if they had any case-studies / research and what their plans are for advertising solutions in Arabic, based on the higher end solutions they're offering.

Mark Cowan's reply made me - and I'm sure many Arabia based marketers in the room - cringe.

He said given that a majority of Facebook users in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East have profile pages in English, Arabic advertising isn't really going to make a big difference.

Forgive my French, but WTH!

Link dot net and facebook doing advertising in the Middle East?

Had a lunch meeting today with the marketing director for linkdotnet which is MSN in Arabia.

They just launched Facebook advertising and the official press launch is tomorrow at Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

You bet I'm going.

Mark Cowen's going to be there, definitely going to try and get a minute with him.

So, Facebook is teaming up with MSN and linkdotnet, while Google launches Buzz and is using Double Click to advance its ads.

Its going to be messy in Dubai in 2010. Not that it already isn't.