Facebook悄然入华？这款App竟是它做的
近日《纽约时报》援引匿名知情人士消息称，美国社交媒体公司Facebook或已经通过授权中国本土公司的形式，在中国的苹果和安卓应用商店推出了一款名叫“彩色气球”的应用，通过这种方式进入中国市场。
Facebook's secret Chinese app is a dud in China so far
QUARTZ
The secret's out, but no one cares.
Over the weekend the New York Times reported that Facebook had stealthily[1] released a photo-sharing app in the Chinese iOS App Store translated as “Colorful Balloons.” The news spread rapidly around English-language media, as it marked the first sign that the company is indeed attempting to make a product specifically for Chinese consumers after years of being shut out of the country.
[1]stealthily：If you move stealthily, you do not want to be seen or felt. A cat moves stealthily when it approaches a mouse. 暗地里；悄悄地
In China, however, response to the news was more muted[2]. The lukewarm[3] reception to the app from both consumers and the Chinese media suggests that Mark Zuckerberg will face an uphill battle if he hopes to make inroads in the country.
[2]muted（不响亮的，减轻的，缺乏热情的，淡漠的）和上文的spread rapidly形成对比。
[3]lukewarm：not enthusiastic or interested 冷淡的，不热情的
Her proposals got a lukewarm response.
大家对她的建议反应冷淡。
Data from App Annie show that since May, “Colorful Balloons” has been lingering in near non-existence in China. Before the piece was published, its highest-ever ranking was when it was the 313th most-downloaded app in the Photo and Video category. It never cracked the rankings for the Overall category in China. That should come as no surprise, since Facebook did nothing to promote the app.
Since the article was published, Colorful Balloons has enjoyed a slight bump—as of Sunday, it ranked number 46 in Photo and Video and 758 in Overall. Today (Aug. 14) it moved up in Photo and Video to 40.
That's a sign of some curiosity, but it's hardly the sign of a hit app. It's ranked well-behind popular photo apps like B612 (owned by Japan's Line), Meitu, and Meipai, all of which have extremely loyal followings in China.
So far the app has drawn only 52 reviews, though most have been positive—it's rated 4.5 stars out of 5.
Outside the confines of the App Store, internet commenters have been less impressed. While some pieces covering Colorful Balloons were dubbed “trending” on Weibo (which, in some regards, is China's answer to Facebook), the story hasn't garnered[4] the viral response of other news in China. Instead, the hot tech story of the weekend was “shared stools,” the latest “innovation” in China's so-called sharing economy.
[4]garner：to collect something, usually after much work or with difficulty （通常指做大量工作或历经很多困难而）收集，积累，获得
Coppola garnered several Oscar awards for "The Godfather".
科波拉以其执导的影片《教父》获得数项奥斯卡奖。
Many commenters on Weibo who followed the app's release noted that they prefer Weibo's interface to Facebook's—a common critique whenever news pertaining to[5] Facebook appears on the site. “Facebook is too dull and boring,” wrote one commenter. “The features are nowhere near those of Weibo, this has nothing to do with politics.”
[5]pertain to sth：to be connected with a particular subject, event, or situation 与…有关；涉及
We are only interested in the parts of the proposals that pertain to local issues.
我们只对议案中涉及当地问题的部分感兴趣。
Among tech news readers in particular, many more expressed longing for Google's return to China. The top comment on one Chinese tech blog's writeup read, “Forget about Facebook, Google Search is more important, it's disgusting that the Android market can't come here.”
It's still not clear what specific expectations Facebook holds for the app, especially given its stealth release. While it has the same app icon as Facebook's analogous Moments app and contains similar features (the main difference is sharing enabled through WeChat, China's most popular chat app), it was placed in the App Store under the developer name YouGe, not Facebook.
这款应用主打图片分享功能，其虽然没有附带Facebook的名称，但其界面外观设计、功能、使用体验等与Facebook的图片分享应用Moments如出一辙，“彩色气球”英文版的提示界面措辞与Moments一字不差。
Facebook did not reply to requests for comment.
It's not clear if Facebook notified authorities about the app, or if such notice was even necessary—for all of Zuckerberg's PR efforts like speaking Mandarin and jogging in heavy Beijing pollution, Facebook's China ambitions may be irrelevant if consumers don't care much for it.
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