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In China, Facebook Tests the Waters with a Stealth App

nytimes.com

43 points by tiger3 8 years ago · 8 comments

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LiweiZ 8 years ago

It's more of a message/signal to the government. Their core products are not going to be allowed in that market in the way most of us think of. And I believe FB is aware of this fully. There are various ways for FB to do business in Chinese market. So sending a message here to make a point to help on the whole agenda. Nothing more.

  • tryingagainbro 8 years ago

    >> There are various ways for FB to do business in Chinese market. So sending a message here to make a point to help on the whole agenda.

    The Chinese Govt is the only one sending the messages that matter. This "stealth" app is there at the pleasure of the Chinese government. End of story.

    They seem to be doing just fine without Google and Facebook

djrogers 8 years ago

> Facebook approved the May debut of a photo-sharing app, called Colorful Balloons, in China, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s plans, who declined to be named because the information is politically sensitive. The app, which has not previously been reported, shares the look, function and feel of Facebook’s Moments app. It was released through a separate local company and without any hint that the social network is affiliated with it.

Well, there goes that secret... Wonder if it will be allowed to continue to exist now that it's known Facebook is behind it? And will this hurt or help FB in China? I could see the Chinese government getting upset about an end-run around their iron control if they were previously unaware of this....

wenbin 8 years ago

Is the app Moments? https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pJcZ58...

From that google cache, Moments is called "彩色气球", which means Colorful Balloons. That Chinese version help page is gone. So we can rely only on google cache :)

artur_makly 8 years ago

around only for...a moment

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