Chinese Flipboard Downloads to Surpass Those in the US

Flipboard — a popular news magazine for mobile devices — expects the number of downloads of its app in China to soon surpass those in the United States.

Ni hao, Flipboard! Chinese Flipboard magazine and content downloads are set to surpass those from American users.

The firm started its Chinese service only last December, but chief executive Mick McCue said there were now as many downloads there as in the US.

He made the comments at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

Flipboard has had a rough ride trying to break into China’s markets.

The country has 500 million internet users — more than any other — and is also the world’s largest smartphone market.

But just like a host of other Western internet companies, Flipboard faced government censorship there, as well as stiff competition from domestic players, adept at creating clones of existing web firms.

On 15 May 2011, Flipboard was blocked by the country’s internet censorship system known as The Great Firewall of China.

Mr McCue said that Flipboard aimed to achieve five million downloads in China by the end of the year.

The Flipboard app launched in 2010 and currently has eight million users.

Continue reading at BBC News.