US social media giant Facebook has moved forward to China by setting up a subsidiary in Hangzhou, home to Alibaba, with a registered capital of US$30 million, China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System said.
The company’s shareholder is Facebook Hong Kong Ltd and its chairman is Damian Yeo, who is head of APAC Legal at Facebook.
A spokesperson at Facebook said the company is looking to set up an innovation hub in Zhejiang, which will focus on training and workshops that will help developers and entrepreneurs to innovate and grow.
Facebook’s products including Facebook app, text app messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp are all blocked in China due to Internet censorship. Last year, Facebook launched a photo sharing app called Colorful Balloons, which is similar to the English version Moments, in China. But the app is no longer available at its App store.
However, about 10% of Facebook’s global advertising revenue comes from China, according to a report by Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser. Wieser estimates Chinese advertisers will spend US$5 billion in Facebook ads in 2018.
Facebook’s Chinese business is conducted by its Hong Kong subsidiary. It works with local advertising agents and provides ads on its news feeds for Chinese companies that go global, Zhang Jian, a branding manager at Chinese marketing agency PandaMobo, told Chinese local media.
To woo the Chinese government, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg paid a visit to China in 2016 when he met Liu Yunshan, then the Central Secretariat of Communist Party in China, and ran through Tiananmen Square in smog without a mask.
Source: China Money Network
