Facebook has been secretly testing an app in China called Colorful Balloons

脸书在中国秘密放飞“彩色气球”？

In May, Facebook quietly launched a photo-sharing app called Colorful Balloons in China, where the social networking site is banned, according to a report in The New York Times.

据相关媒体报道，由于中国用户在本土无法使用Facebook，今年5月份脸书在中国上架了一款名为“彩色气球”的照片共享应用。

Colorful Balloons appears to mimic the look and feel of Facebook’s Moments app, which allows users to share photos with friends and family members. Rather than interfacing with Facebook, the app works with the country’s biggest social network, WeChat.

“彩色气球”的功能和用户体验都与Facebook旗下的Moments非常相似，用户可以和联系人、家人之间相互传送照片。而这款app将适用于国内最大的社交软件——微信，而非脸书。

Facebook released the app through a local company called Youge Internet Technology, without any hint of branding from the social media giant, and appears to have taken efforts to ensure that it doesn’t spread widely.

授权在中国推出“彩色气球”应用的公司名为Youge Internet Technology，没有任何迹象显示其是Facebook的下属子公司。很明显，公司尽可能地来确保这款软件的传播范围不会太广。

The Times describes this quiet rollout as “unprecedented,” and that it demonstrates the effort that tech companies will undertake to try and gain a foothold into China and its population of 700 million internet users.

有媒体称此举“史无前例”，表明各个科技公司都将采取措施，尝试进入中国这个有着7亿网民的大市场。

The rollout doesn’t appear to be an effort to launch a social network under the radar. TheTimes describes the initiative as a way for Facebook to “see how Chinese users digitally share information with their friends or interact with their favorite social media platforms.” In a statement provided to The Verge, Facebook said that it is “spending time understanding and learning more about the country in different ways. Our focus right now is on helping Chinese businesses and developers expand to new markets outside China by using our ad platform.”

这次的试运行并不是为了建立一个新的社交网络。在某网站的一篇报道中，脸书称他们“正在努力通过不同渠道来进一步了解中国，学习更多关于这个国家的知识。公司现阶段的目标是帮助中国的企业和开发人员使用我们的广告平台拓展到中国以外的新市场。”

（翻译：进击的Meredith）

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