Facebook strikes China deal with Baidu
Two companies to open a jointly-owned social network in China. Facebook has struck a deal with Baidu, the biggest Chinese search engine, to open a jointly-owned social network in China, according to reports in the Chinese press, citing inside sources.
These sources said the new venture wouldn’t involve Facebook.com, which is blocked inside China like many more social networking sites, but a jointly owned, new social networking website. It’s unclear when the site could launch: joint ventures need to be approved by the Chinese government and that can take a while, and they have to staff it up with experienced executives that both sides can agree on.
There had been reports of this in the Western press but it’s the first tangible thing we’ve seen. Last year Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg traveled to China and met with Baidu CEO Robin Li.
Thank god we invested in BIDU.
I never thought that Baidu would ever consider teaming up with Facebook.
Entering China would give Facebook access to the world’s largest internet market, with more than 457m web users. People who want to get on the social network there now rely on private-network services to circumvent firewalls that bar access to information the government deems inappropriate.
Something tells me that will be a thing of the past once Facebook enters the picture (no pun intended). There are so many security issues currently outstanding and it just keeps growing larger and larger despite the festering problems with the network. What are your thoughts?
Facebook said in February that it’s opening an office in Hong Kong. While the aim is to focus on Taiwan and Hong Kong, the location brings Facebook closer to advertisers in China, where Susquehanna International predicts the online advertising market will triple to almost $13bn by 2014.
China, which bans pornography, gambling and content critical of the ruling Communist Party, blocks websites including Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, which don’t follow the nation’s self-censorship rules. Google pulled its search engine out of China last year after deciding it would stop censoring its content.
Good luck enforcing the above censoring rules with a loose cannon like facebook! It reminds me of the not so recent past when big banks got too big and started to spin off. Now we only have a handful of survivors and many boutique firms with a niche market. As they say, history always repeats itself!