Social Media

Facebook Quietly Released A Photo-Sharing App In China

Facebook authorized a photo-sharing app released in China in May, according to The New York Times.

Facebook Quietly Released A Photo-Sharing App In China
Getty Images
SMS

Facebook might have just entered China's app store — but you'd never know it at first glance.

The New York Times reports Facebook was behind the May launch of a Chinese app called Colorful Balloons, which lets users share pictures on social media. The app looks eerily similar to the company's Moments app.

The app was released by a local company and doesn't carry any of Facebook's branding. But the Times says Facebook authorized it. The release of the app could give Facebook a better understanding of the social media habits of China's 700 million internet users.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spent years courting the potentially lucrative Chinese market: He's given a talk in Mandarin and gone jogging in Tiananmen Square.

Apple Goes Along With China's Latest VPN Crackdown
Apple Goes Along With China's Latest VPN Crackdown

Apple Goes Along With China's Latest VPN Crackdown

China is known for its so-called "Great Firewall," the government's internet censorship effort.

LEARN MORE

But like a lot of U.S. companies, Facebook has had a hard time breaking through China's onerous digital censorship laws. The country recently started disrupting messages on Facebook-owned chat platform Whatsapp.

And local companies have already stepped in to fill the social media void. Even Colorful Balloons relies heavily on Chinese social platform WeChat to function.