It's more of a message/signal to the government. Their core products are not going to be allowed in that market in the way most of us think of. And I believe FB is aware of this fully. There are various ways for FB to do business in Chinese market. So sending a message here to make a point to help on the whole agenda. Nothing more.

> Facebook approved the May debut of a photo-sharing app, called Colorful Balloons, in China, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s plans, who declined to be named because the information is politically sensitive. The app, which has not previously been reported, shares the look, function and feel of Facebook’s Moments app. It was released through a separate local company and without any hint that the social network is affiliated with it.

Well, there goes that secret... Wonder if it will be allowed to continue to exist now that it's known Facebook is behind it? And will this hurt or help FB in China? I could see the Chinese government getting upset about an end-run around their iron control if they were previously unaware of this....

Is the app Moments? https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pJcZ58...

From that google cache, Moments is called "彩色气球", which means Colorful Balloons. That Chinese version help page is gone. So we can rely only on google cache :)

around only for...a moment