Facebook is trying a new way into China, after years of being locked out of the world’s second largest economy.
The social media giant said on Tuesday that it plans to set up “an innovation hub … to support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups.”
Its function will be similar to Facebook hubs currently operating around the world, including France, Brazil, India and South Korea, the company said in a statement.
Facebook and other major tech firms have been blocked out of China for years thanks to the country’s strict censorship laws.
In addition to Facebook, apps such as Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram are banned in the country.
Facebook could still face hurdles opening its new innovation hub, however. A Chinese government notice listing a Facebook subsidiary in the country was taken down late Tuesday from the website where it was posted.
According to an archived version of the notice, Facebook registered a Chinese subsidiary in the city of Hangzhou on July 18 with a starting capital of $30 million. The only shareholder listed was Facebook’s Hong Kong entity.
“With censorship issues in China as a clear blockade for Facebook and social media platforms, this is an ‘olive branch move’ in hopes of penetrating this region over the coming years in some form,” said Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer and head of technology research at GBH Insights.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made several efforts to build a relationship with the country through frequent state visits and meetings with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
Just last week, Zuckerberg gave the impression that efforts in Beijing had stalled. “We’re a long way from doing anything [in China],” he said in an interview with Recode.
China has become an increasingly important innovation center for American tech giants like Apple and Google who have invested heavily in research and development in the country in recent years.
Last year, Facebook edged its way back into China by quietly launching a photo and video sharing app called Colorful Balloons, without attaching its name to it.
While the new innovation hub may help Facebook expand its presence in China, there is no indication its social media platforms will be made available to people in the world’s most populous country anytime soon.
About Facebook
Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
The founders initially limited the website’s membership to Harvard students. Later they expanded it to higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Facebook gradually added support for students at various other universities, and eventually to high school students. Since 2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become a registered user of Facebook, though variations exist in this requirement, depending on local laws. The name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) in February 2012, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company. It began selling stock to the public three months later. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements that appear onscreen.
Facebook can be accessed from a large range of devices with Internet connectivity, such as desktop computers, laptopsand tablet computers, and smartphones. After registering, users can create a customized profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post status updates, share photos, videos and links, use various software applications (“apps”), and receive notifications of other users’ activity. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. Additionally, users can report or block unpleasant people.
Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users as of January 2018. Its popularity has led to prominent media coverage for the company, including significant scrutiny over privacy and the psychological effects it has on users. In recent years, the company has faced intense pressure over the amount of fake news, hate speech and depictions of violence prevalent on its services, all of which it is attempting to counteract.