Facebook has announced plans to open a sales office in Beijing within the next year, prompting speculation over the company's future in a country where it has been blocked since 2009, Bloomberg reports.
According to Facebook’s vice president of corporate development Vaughan Smith, Chinese companies are becoming bigger advertisers on Facebook, prompting them to explore "ways that we can provide even more support locally". He added that the company "may consider having a sales office in China in the future."
Several news sources believe the social network may be less nonchalant than it appears, citing the ban in China as a giant hurdle in the way of Mark Zuckerberg's ultimate goal of connecting the world. While Facebook currently boasts around 1.28 billion users, China remains a huge, untapped market for the company, with a population of over 1.35 billion.
China's government banned Facebook following the Xinjiang riots in 2009, and nearly five years later, it remains inaccessible in the country (without a VPN).
While Facebook has no offices in the mainland, the company does have an office in Hong Kong. Here, they have quietly been doing business with Chinese companies, reportedly hoping to strengthen relations within the country.
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