Yahoo is planning on launching a Chinese Language version of Flickr which will be targeted towards Chinese Internet users.
According to Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Flickr China will first launch to the Taiwanese and Hong Kong audiences and then expand into mainland China.
This of course, brings about the question of where the Chinese version(s) of Flickr will be hosted and whether or not there will be a separate Flickr for Taiwan and for China.
Cashmore adds that Flickr is not currently blocked in China, but the move of launching a Chinese language version could stir up the controvesy pot a bit:
Moving into China is sometimes controversial: will Yahoo be faced with the same dilemma as Google – trading morals for the huge money making opportunity of the Chinese market? And will China change its view on blocking Flickr when it realizes that the site is full of soft porn and provides open access to politically sensitive images?
Boy o Boy, Yahoo is tearing up the social media market lately! Another great add to the war-chest of social media sites for Y!
All Flickr photos, not the site itself seem to be blocked in Chongqing China. However Google’s webalbums still seem accessible. However Blogger (Google) and Google pages are both blocked.
And all I wanted to do was post my vacation pictures and update my blog.
Blocked in shanghai as well
and in Beijing…