The American company Facebook has secured a license to open an office in China in an attempt to finally break into this lucrative market, where its website has been blocked since 2009.
>>>Privacy as a Luxury: Would You Pay for Facebook Without Ads?
If Facebook opens an office, it would be the company’s first formal presence in China. However, in the meantime, the registration of that office has been removed from the Chinese government’s website, indicating possible complications, reports the New York Times.
China is the largest global social media market, but access to sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube is blocked for users in that country. Instead, they can only access domestic social media sites like Weibo, Renren, and Youku (the blog TutorMing lists the 6 most popular Chinese social networks).
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has made several attempts to charm Chinese officials, even learning Mandarin.
>>>Zuckerberg: We Were Wrong
Facebook’s subsidiary is registered in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou and is funded by an investment of £30 million, according to details of a filing with the Chinese credit information company, which were seen by Reuters and the New York Times before the data was removed.
The filing, which is no longer publicly available, states that the ‘scope of business’ includes technology development, technical services, and investment consulting, among other items.
Facebook’s ambition to break into the Chinese market has been long-standing. Mark Zuckerberg has gone so far as to learn Mandarin and also ran around Tiananmen Square in March 2016.
>>>Bob Enderle: If Facebook Were a Traditional Company, Zuckerberg Would Have Been History Long Ago
However, since last week, it seems that any move by the company in China has been halted. “We are far from being able to do anything,” Zuckerberg stated to the tech portal Recode.
