Social networking giant Facebook is expected to open an Israel office by the end of the year in order to increase its pool of potential advertisers in Israel.

Facebook is currently the second-most used site in Israel, behind Google.

The company feels that opening a local advertising department will significantly increase the purchase of Facebook ads in Israel.

Representatives from Facebook headquarters have visited Israel in the past few weeks to meet with prominent advertisers as well as companies that develop leading applications for the online social network.

The Facebook representatives, who visited employees at Google’s Israel office, were also looking to hire marketing and sales people.

Until now, Facebook’s media sales in Israel were managed by Nana10 for premium clients, i.e. advertisers with extensive budgets.