Although the site has been restricted in China since 2009, Facebook has claimed that China has been the biggest contributor in application development in the region. Despite the government’s internet crackdown, developers and users are trying to find ways to get around the great firewall, and Facebook is planning to continue to extend its business into Asia. Bloomberg Businessweek reports:
Developers of software from China make up about 20 percent of Facebook’s partner network in Asia, David Lim, a partner engineer at the company’s mobile developer relations division, said in an interview in Hong Kong today. Chinese app developers are using Facebook (FB) to reach overseas users, Lim said, without providing figures.
Facebook is wooing software firms in China to help bolster its apps lineup for the more than 800 million people worldwide who use its social-networking service. The Menlo Park, California-based company last month said in its filing for a proposed $5 billion initial public offering that it is continuing to evaluate entering China, the world’s biggest Internet market.
“We now have Chinese-language help pages for developers, and we are working on giving them better support,” said Lim. “Developers in mainland China are important to us.”
Last year, Facebook set up an office in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, and said it may win business from Chinese advertisers.
