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Snapchat Opens Qatar Office To Deepen Gulf Presence
The new Doha base anchors Snap’s regional expansion as Qatar steps up its digital and creative drive.
Snapchat has opened a new office in Doha’s Msheireb district, marking its first base in Qatar and a stronger foothold in the Gulf. Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel joined Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour bin Jabor Al Thani, Director of the Government Communications Office (GCO), at the launch.
The move plants Snap at the center of a market where engagement runs deep. Snapchat users in the Gulf open the app more than 45 times a day, while about 85% use its augmented reality features daily. From the new Doha hub, Snap aims to work more closely with creators, entrepreneurs and local partners as Qatar pushes ahead with its sweeping Vision 2030 goals.
“We welcome Snap Inc.’s expansion in Qatar and its continued contribution to the country’s digital and creative economy,” said Sheikh Jassim, adding: “The office is an important step in strengthening our strategic partnership, which began three years ago and has already achieved significant milestones, particularly in development, training, and support for the creative industry”.
The opening follows Snap’s memorandum of understanding with the GCO signed during Web Summit Qatar in February. That deal paved the way for the country’s first Augmented Reality Academy, designed to train new creators and developers in immersive tech. The program will be open to young innovators across the region, part of a broader push to build skills that feed into Qatar’s growing creative economy.
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Hussein Freijeh, Snap’s Vice President for MENA, said the company is “deepening its roots in a market that celebrates creativity and culture”. The new base also expands opportunities for brands and advertisers looking to reach a digitally active audience through more localized storytelling and AR experiences.
Global platforms are increasingly circling Qatar’s fast-growing digital economy, drawn by its investment in creative industries and infrastructure. For Snap, the Doha office signals a long-term bet on one of the region’s most connected markets — and a platform to anchor future growth across the Gulf.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
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The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
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