Facebook plans to open subsidiary in China after being locked out of the country for years

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Emily Rauhala
July 24 at 12:08 PM

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has obtained a license to set up an office in China — a first for the company, which has been shut out of China’s lucrative market for years despite many attempts to break in.

The $30 million subsidiary in the southern city of Hangzhou would be set up as a start-up incubator, making minor investments and advising small businesses, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking and a Chinese business filing.

Facebook is currently blocked in China. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg made personal appeals to the Chinese Communist Party’s top brass, including learning Mandarin and taking a notorious “smog jog” through Tiananmen Square, braving toxic air pollution for a photo op in 2016.

“We are interested in setting up an innovation hub in Zhejiang to support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups,” the company said in a statement. “We have done this in several parts of the world — France, Brazil, India, Korea — and our efforts would be focused on training and workshops that help these developers and entrepreneurs to innovate and grow.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/facebook-opens-subsidiary-in-china-after-being-locked-out-of-the-country-for-years/2018/07/24/f835dd34-8f5a-11e8-b769-e3fff17f0689_story.html

[turbinetree]

1. What could possibly go wrong..................they can't even correct the shit they caused

in this country...............and now there is going to be a new gateway.................to here.............


I hate Facebook period.............................

[NewJeffCT]

2. Everybody in China already uses WeChat

which serves as the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, or Facebook Messenger. And, Chinese abroad use WeChat because it's not blocked by China and they can speak to family and/or business associates located in China. It's available on Android and Apples phones here.

It would be a tough market to crack.

[Cold War Spook]

3. Great,

then my friends will be able to talk to me more than 6 months a year.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Facebook's China venture fails as record of approval for innovation hub vanishes

That didn't last long ...

On Wednesday a government database showed Facebook had been approved to set up an office in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Facebook said it was interested in opening “an innovation hub” in Zhejiang, similar to others it has started elsewhere. Then on Thursday, the filing had disappeared and terms related to the operation were censored on Chinese social media.

The apparent about-face underlines the difficulty for companies operating in China, where they answer to a legion of ministries, local and central authorities, and regulators whose internal power struggles can derail new ventures like Facebook’s.

According to the New York Times, citing an unnamed source, Facebook had secured the approval of provincial authorities but not the country’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China. According to the paper, the regulator was angry it had not been consulted more.
...
Chinese media who on Wednesday visited the site of the Facebook office listed on the filing reported local tenants saying they knew of no new companies moving in and there had been no renovations. Screenshots of the filing, still circulating in Chinese media on Thursday, said it would focus on technology development, service, consulting, as well as investment management and consulting.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/26/facebooks-china-venture-innovation-hub-fails