Tom Group has secretly changed the layout of Tom.com in a design that has flavors of Facebook in both design style and functionality, a signal that the company may help bring Facebook to China — or compete with it.

Yang Guomeng, the newly appointed CEO of Tom Group, has revealed the company's Internet strategy in which Tom.com is positioned as an open and trans-network platform that not only provides mainstream services like e-commerce and instant messaging, but also is opened to all third-party applications.

Last year Tom Online took itself off the public markets in the hope of avoiding continued strain from investor worries. The company had been accused in mainland China of sending mobile spam, and mobile services accounted for a majority of its revenue.