Facebook X-file Snap

The X-Files revival, a six-episode miniseries, has just come and gone and the reaction seems clear enough. It was a mixed bag, with real highs and, er, not-so-highs. And it certainly proved popular enough for another run of the venerable show, a true pioneer and powerhouse of the ‘90s which, after nine full seasons, petered out the spring after 9/11. Which is fortunate, given what a complete cliffhanger the ending of this run turned out to be.

 SAN FRANCISCO — Ever since Snap, the maker of the messaging app Snapchat, went public in March, the company has become a closely watched barometer for Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

The technology world is scrutinizing Snap as an indicator of whether smaller social media companies can compete with behemoths like Facebook. And Wall Street is using Snap to gauge whether investors will embrace other unprofitable tech companies if they go public.

Snap has not delivered on either front. Over the past few months, the once-buzzy company has faced a litany of issues. Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram, as well other Facebook apps that have copied Snapchat’s main features, have been growing more rapidly than Snapchat.

In May, Snap reported disappointing earnings, its first as a public company. Its stock has since plunged well below its $17 public offering price.

SHANGHAI — Facebook and many of its apps have been blocked in China for years. To change that, Mark Zuckerberg has made a big point of meeting with Chinese politicians, reading stodgy Communist Party propaganda, studying Mandarin and — perhaps more daunting — speaking it in public.

Now the social network is trying a different way into China: by authorizing the release of a new app there that does not carry the Facebook name.

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.

The stealthy and anonymous release of an app by a major foreign technology company in China is unprecedented. It shows the desperation — and frustration — of global tech companies as they try to break into the world’s largest online market. It also underscores the lengths they are willing to go, and their increasing acceptance of the idea that standards for operating in China are different from elsewhere.