Facebook takes another step into China

Social network sets up subsidiary in a country where its main product remains blocked

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Published: 12:00am, 25 Jul 2018Updated: 8:33am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Facebook is making another small step into China.

The social network is blocked in the country, but it set up a subsidiary in Hangzhou, according to an official business registration. It says the new company, Facebook Technology, has one parent company with no other shareholders: Facebook Hongkong Ltd.

A Facebook representative told Reuters that the business will "support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups" by providing training and workshops.

The choice of Hangzhou puts Facebook right in the backyard of one of China's tech giants: Alibaba, which is headquartered in the city.

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba.)

Last year the New York Times revealed that Facebook was looking for an office in Shanghai, primarily to work on hardware -- a logical enough idea, given that virtually every major tech product is manufactured in China.

The report also noted that Facebook sells ads to Chinese companies hoping to sell to the rest of the world, with some of those sales handled by its office in Hong Kong. Moving Facebook closer to those advertisers also makes a lot of sense.

Facebook takes another step into China

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Social network sets up subsidiary in a country where its main product remains blocked

Social network sets up subsidiary in a country where its main product remains blocked