An executive from Facebook Inc. said Monday that the social networking service is looking to open a sales office in China.
Vaughan Smith, vice president of corporate development at Facebook, said the company is being advertised by more Chinese companies, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"We are, of course, exploring ways that we can provide even more support locally and may consider having a sales office in China in the future," he said.
An unidentified person familiar with the situation said the office could be opened within a year. Other people with knowledge of the potential deal said the company is also in discussions to lease space in Beijing's Fortune Financial Center, which is located in the city's central business district, Bloomberg reported.
Despite the social networking service being banned by the Chinese government in 2009, Facebook has since been able to build an office in Hong Kong, and has been selling ads to companies looking to reach users around the world.
Facebook bought WhatsApp, which has a large user base in China, in January, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The company also owns Instagram, a photo sharing app that is also available in China.
U.S. Internet companies, such as Yahoo! Inc. and eBay Inc., have had trouble opening in China, Bloomberg reported. Google Inc. took its search page out of the country in 2010 because of China's online censorship rules. LinkedIn Corp. said recently that it is looking to expand its Chinese-language website and that some content will be restricted to follow censorship rules in the country.
"The government is still quite concerned about social instability," said Shaun Rein, managing director at China Market Research Group in Shanghai. "I don't think you are going to see any access for Facebook anytime soon."
China has banned YouTube and Gmail is available in a limited form. The government has also censored Microsoft's search engine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
While Facebook is being cautious with its decisions in the country, Monday's announcement is a sign that the company's relationship with China could be improving.
