Blocked in China, Facebook Is Said to Seek a Shanghai Office
That app, called Colorful Balloons, originally went largely unnoticed
but briefly rose into the top 50 in the photo and video section of China’s iPhone app store after reported its release last month, according to app research company App Annie.
Google, which pulled its servers out of China in 2010 after it decided to stop censoring search results, retained offices in Beijing and Shanghai
that support both advertising and research and development.
The social media giant in recent months has quietly scouted for office space in Shanghai, according to two people with knowledge of its efforts there.
But if successful, it would be a symbolic victory for the social network, which has
long worked to get into China despite being blocked there for nearly a decade.
The initiatives would require plugging into China’s electronics supply chain, which
helps build some of the world’s most popular gadgets, like Apple’s iPhone.
In late 2015, it obtained a license to open an office in Beijing,
but the permit lasted only three months and it could not establish a space in that time.
