Facebook is set to open an office in Dubai next week, a move aimed at capturing more advertisers from the GCC region. The office will focus on dealing with advertisers from the Gulf, while digital advertising solutions company Connect Ads will continue to handle advertising from Egypt and Iraq on behalf of Facebook. The office will be in Dubai Internet City, one of the Emirate's free zone business parks, with a staff of three people.

Facebook has made yet another acquisition. The social media giant has acquired e-commerce company Karma. The e-commerce startup creates a curated catalog of products that Facebook users can use to send gifts directly to their friends via mobile. The acquisition is significant because it gives Facebook an interesting e-commerce revenue stream and further enhances its mobile footprint. Facebook has acquired anumber of mobile media companies in the past few weeks, including Instagram, Lightbox, and Glancee.

According to socialbakers.com, a Web analytics firm, there are currently 1,419,060 Facebook users in Lebanon. “Our social networking statistics show that Facebook penetration in Lebanon is 34.4 percent compared to the country’s population and 141.9 percent in relation to number of [actual] Internet users,” the socialbakers.com website noted. “Total number of Facebook users in Lebanon ... grew by more than 129,880 in the last six months.”

Facebook made its NASDAQ debut on Friday. Mark Zuckerburg appeared via a video link from the firm's headquarters in California to introduce the stock. However, technical glitches at the Nasdaq Stock Market delayed the trading  by half an hour. Facebook shares ended their first day of trading at $38.23, barely above the company's initial pricing of $38. Shares in the social network initially rose more than 10% to $42, before quickly falling back.

According to data released by Nielsen, apps are still the main way of accessing content on mobile devices, as the time spent on apps (versus mobile web browsers) has increased to 81% from 73% over the past year. The data revealed that the top five apps are Facebook, YouTube, Google Play, Google Search and Gmail, while the most dominant smartphone platforms are Android and iOS, accounting for 88% of downloads. Nielsen's data also indicated that the average time spent on apps per day has increased by two minutes to a total of 39 minutes a day. 

According to the results of a new Associated Press/CNBC poll, half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad. The poll also revealed that ahead of the company's highly anticipated IPO, half of Americans say the social network's expected asking price is too high. Expected later this week, Facebook's Wall Street debut could value the company at $100 billion, making it worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.