Facebook Loses China Executive -- WSJ
January 20 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Alyssa Abkowitz in Beijing and Liza Lin in Shanghai
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (January 20, 2018).
Facebook Inc.'s campaign to re-enter China has hit another
setback with the departure of a veteran executive who had been
leading efforts to improve relations with Chinese government
leaders.
Wang-Li Moser resigned late last year, people with knowledge of
the situation said Friday. Ms. Moser wanted to return to the U.S.
for personal reasons, one of these people said.
Ms. Moser couldn't be reached for comment. Her exit was first
reported by the New York Times.
Analysts say the loss of Ms. Moser only adds to Facebook's
challenges in re-entering China, where it has been blocked since
2009, reflecting the government's concern over the ability of large
social networks to stir unrest.
Even if it could regain entry -- and most analysts say that is
unlikely -- Facebook also faces a challenge in taking on WeChat,
the dominant social media app, run by Tencent Holdings Ltd.
"Looking at the environment now, it will be very difficult for
foreign firms in the social media space to make headway into
China," said Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research
Group. "The government has firm censorship rules and they have
strong local players -- there's no need for them to open the door
so wide anymore."
"It's always the sword in the stone," said Duncan Clark, founder
of tech consultancy BDA China, talking about the challenge of the
Chinese market. "Knights keep trying to grab at it, but with the
internet sector, especially, it's almost mission impossible."
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has made China a
priority. Last week, in a move widely seen as a possible back door
into China for the Silicon Valley company, Facebook joined with
Beijing-based smartphone company Xiaomi Corp. to launch a new
virtual-reality headset called Mi VR Standalone, modeled after
Facebook's Oculus Go.
Ms. Moser, a U.S. citizen born in China, was hired to help build
face-to-face relations with government officials. Before joining
Facebook, Ms. Moser spent more than a decade at Intel Corp. in
China, where former colleagues said she helped Intel build a $2.5
billion factory.
In a 2011 essay, she called arranging meetings with Chinese
officials a "long, trivial and pressing" task. She had some
successes at Facebook, joining Mr. Zuckerberg for a meeting with Lu
Wei, then China's top internet regulator, at Facebook headquarters
in late 2014.
She also accompanied Mr. Zuckerberg in March 2016 to Beijing
meetings with Mr. Lu and the Communist Party's ideology chief Liu
Yunshan.
William Shuai, a former government official who Ms. Moser hired
away from LinkedIn Corp.'s China operations in September, has
assumed her duties for now, according to one person familiar with
the situation. LinkedIn is the only major U.S. social network to
have a foothold in China, after it agreed to submit to government
censorship to gain access to the market.
Write to Alyssa Abkowitz at alyssa.abkowitz@wsj.com and Liza Lin
at Liza.Lin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2018 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024