Facebook continues to woo advertisers in China by stepping up hiring in China and teaming up with a second local partner in a bid to get more business from Chinese companies, says a report from The Wall Street Journal. The efforts from the social network deserve praise considering the fact that Chinese customers are not even allowed to access the service.
Facebook intensifying activities around China
Facebook is intensifying its activities with the intention to enter China some day. The idea behind is to make businesses realize the importance of reaching Facebook’s 1.39 billion active monthly users outside China’s borders.
As of now, sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other foreign social media services are banned in China. Experts believe Facebook can become successful in Beijing, provided the state takes off the ban some day. There are a few Chinese social networking sites that are quite popular in the country, but Chinese consumers have expressed their interest in new services repeatedly, says the report.
Facebook is eying clients such as Youzu Interactive, a Shanghai-based online game designer. Youzu increased its number of registered daily players two-fold for its popular League of Angels game after shelling out around 10 million yuan in advertising on the social media network, says the Journal. Liu Wanqin, a Youzu manager involved in overseas advertising, told The WSJ that Facebook contributed around half of the players to their site, and the social network is the most important ad tool right now.
China holds potential for tech firms
It’s not just Facebook which is trying to heat up competition in mainland. Other companies such as Google are also making efforts. Recently, the largest online search engine opened a Chinese language developer channel on YouTube and also opened up its Google Play store to Chinese app developers. Another social networking company, Twitter, opened its first Hong Kong office recently, focusing on advertisement business in China.
Highlighting the importance of China, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently increased his China profile. Last October, he conducted a full session in Mandarin in front of Chinese audiences at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Additionally, he met with local business tycoons such as Alibaba Group chief Jack Ma and the CEO of the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp, Lei Jun.
