Facebook has yet to find a way into China, but its purchase of a much smaller social networking service, photo sharing app Instagram, may give it a foot in the door.
Instagram, an app thatallows users to quickly edit photos, tag and share them, is available in Chinese and is integrated with one of China's most popular microblogging services, Sina Weibo, so users can post their Instagram photos on their microblogs.
As with some other overseas social networking sites such as LinkedIn that aren't as large as Facebook, Instagram hasn't yet seen users report major disruptions to access to the app from within China, where authorities use Web filtering technology to control access to foreign websites.
Facebook has been blocked for years. If it were to start operations in China, analysts say it would have to jump through significant hoops including those that local websites already deal with–such as policing their own content for topics deemed harmful by authorities–in order to keep necessary approvals from the Chinese government. Many Web firms, including Google, have been unwilling to cooperate with censorship.
Instagram doesn't have a listed China office. But founder Kevin Systrom, who spoke in Beijing last fall at Disrupt, a conference held by Techcrunch, expressed keen interest in offering its services here. He didn't yet have a stance on China's censorship at the time:
"I haven't thought a lot about it," he said then. "It's definitely a challenge to work well overseas, because you just have to play by different rules, and I think it's up to the company … to decide whether or not you want to play by those rules."
"I wouldn't claim to necessarily understand all of them just yet," he said.
Instagram didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Instagram in China can partially rely on Sina's existing censorship capabilities. Its own platform is vulnerable to being blocked, though it has helped that Instagram hasn't been labeled as a platform for controversial discussion or a catalyst for political movements, as Facebook has, and that it appears to still have a relatively small user base in China. Until recently, Instagram was available only to users of Apple's iPhone, though now it is also compatible with Google's Android mobile device operating system.
A Sina public relations representative said he couldn't immediately provide data on Instagram usage on the Weibo platform. A search for photos tagged as Instagram photos shows many are being posted from Chinese language users in Hong Kong. The Chinese market already offers similar services, including one called TuDing.
A search on Tuesday for photos tagged with locations showed over 1,300 photos labeled with Beijing and over 1,500 with Shanghai, while more than 6,800 were labeled with Hong Kong, all in Chinese. In comparison, Instagram had more than 360,000 photos labeled with New York in English and over 169,000 labeled with Los Angeles.
Globally, Instagram user photos from other parts of Asia–including from Japan, where the company is also integrated with a local social network called Mixi, and Thailand–frequently make it to Instagram's popular photos page. For the anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake, Instagram featured user photos from Japan on its blog.
Instagram has also highlighted South Korea and Hong Kong users on its blog.
Some Weibo users expressed concern that a deal with Facebook could cut access to Instagram, for example if the companies force users to log in to Instagram through Facebook.
One user writing under the name HTTP error 403 joked: "Google: I will buy anybody who's got a bright future. Facebook: I will buy anybody who's got platforms. China: I will block anybody you buy."
–Loretta Chao w/ contributions from Yang Jie; follow Loretta on Twitter @lorettac
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