Facebook is Banned in China: How It Makes Money There Anyway

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) once operated in China, but it was banned following the Urumqi riots in 2009. The Chinese government claimed that independence activists used Facebook as a communication tool during the riots, which resulted in nearly 200 deaths. Some investors might assume that Facebook's lack of a presence in China indicates that it hasn't made any money in the People's Republic over the past decade.

But ironically, China remains Facebook's second-largest market by annual revenue after the United States. Pivotal Research analyst Brian Weiser previously estimated that Facebook generated $5 billion to $7 billion from Chinese advertisers throughout fiscal 2018, which equaled roughly 10% of its top line.

That's why it wasn't surprising when Facebook recently hired a new engineering team in Singapore to develop new ad-buying tools for Chinese companies. Facebook also declared that it was "committed to becoming the best marketing platform for Chinese companies going abroad" in a WeChat post last November. Let's see how Facebook still generates so much revenue from China, and if that business could lead to a return for its core apps behind the "Great Firewall."

Source Fool.com