Facebook’s subsidiary in China will be an “innovation hub” to support local tech talent, ramping up its presence in the restrictive market where its social media sites remain blocked.
The social media giant had set up a subsidiary in China with registered capital of $30 million, a filing on China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System showed.
The subsidiary is registered in Hangzhou, home of e-commerce giant Alibaba, according to a filing approved on China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System last week.
The filing listed Facebook Hongkong Ltd and no other entities as a shareholder.
Facebook’s website remains banned in China, which strictly censors foreign news outlets, search engines and social media including content from Twitter and Google.
If the office opens, it would be the firm’s first formal presence in China. However, the office’s registration has since been removed from the Chinese government website, suggesting possible complications, the New York Times says.
China is the world’s biggest social media market, but access to websites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is blocked in the country.
Instead, Chinese users can only access domestic social media sites such as Weibo, Renren and YouKu, which the government can monitor.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has already made several attempts to charm Chinese officials, even going so far as to learn Mandarin.