Facebook's Chinese-language site launched in June, a month before it was blocked in China

While other Asian countries are enjoying ever-increasing traffic, the number of Facebook users in China is dropping sharply no thanks to stiff government censorship there.

The world’s most populous nation is one of the few remaining countries that has not been conquered by the California-based social networking company. In fact, its little subscriber base is getting even smaller.

According to Inside Facebook, an independent blog focusing on the social networking site, China is one of only three out of 98 countries worldwide that lost more users than it gained. The other countries are Iceland and Cyprus.

Citing its Global Monitor report, Inside Facebook said the firm founded by Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg saw its monthly active users in China dropping to 14,000 at the beginning of October from 41,000 active users a month before.

Inside Facebook attributed the dip to the site’s blocking since July, at which point it had some one million users. To recall, Beijing blocked Facebook in an attempt to minimize publicity about the riots in Urumqi, Xingjiang, which the press branded as the 2009 version of the Tiananmen and Tibet uprisings.

“Sure, there are proxy servers and other ways of accessing the site, but very few people apparently have the ability and the desire to do so,” Inside Facebook said, adding that there were many local alternatives.

With hardnosed, and often vague, government censorship, Facebook, along with other foreign websites, has no choice but to let Chinese counterparts dominate the huge online market.

Those who want to stay connected opt to use Chinese rivals like Renren.com, Kaixin001 and 51.com. Internet firms there operate with licenses and are mandated to regulate themselves, filtering pornographic and politically sensitive content. Meanwhile, foreign sites often get axed.

“To be more exact: (number of Facebook users in China is) falling off a cliff. And not by choice, as anyone who has tried to access Facebook in China recently knows,” the Wall Street Journal said.

It also noted that popular overseas sites like video content sharing platformYouTube.com and microblogging service Twitter are also banned there. (Grace R.)

Source: Wall Street Journal and Inside Facebook