Facebook Still Interested in the Chinese Market: Executives

Executives of Facebook Inc. have echoed the company’s interest to do business in China during its annual shareholder meeting on June 20, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who was in China last week, said: "We're learning, we're studying about the Chinese market and we'll see what happens."

Sandberg went to China to meet with top clients who use Facebook to promote their ads to users abroad. Although Facebook has no office in China, it sells ads to Chinese companies.

Although Facebook's interest on China is well-known, it is not expecting to get the approval to operate soon. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg jogging without a face mask at Tiananmen Square in March was much publicized, drawing reactions from netizens.

During the annual meeting, shareholders approved the creation of a new type of shares, but rejected five other proposals from the shareholders. They also re-elected all the eight directors, including Peter Thiel, who had earlier said that he secretly supported lawsuits against Gawker Media.

The shareholders applauded when Zuckerberg said that he intends to manage the company for a long time.

In April, the chief executive had proposed the creation of a new class of nonvoting shares, the Class C shares, which will have economic rights as other shares but will not have voting rights. The new shares will enable Facebook to distribute the shares to employees but would not weaken Zuckerberg's control. Alphabet Inc, Google's parent company, did the same in 2014.

Christine Jantz, chief investment officer for NorthStar Asset Management, however, contradicted the plan, adding that it would lessen the power of shareholders to contribute their ideas on various issues.

The meeting, which was held at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood, California, was attended by more than 100 shareholders and four of the eight directors, which included Zuckerberg, Sandberg, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chief executive of the Gates Foundation, and Erskine Bowles, a former White House official and president emeritus of the University of North Carolina.

Thiel, Marc Andreessen, WhatsApp founder and CEO Jan Koum, and Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings were not present.