China not an easy market for Facebook
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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was named Time's 2010 Person of the Year, paid a visit to China last week. Zuckerberg's tour sparked intense speculation concerning his plans of bringing the social media giant to China.
Zuckerberg stopped by China's leading IT tech companies like Baidu and Alibaba. Though few details about their talks were released, one thing is for sure: Zuckerberg is trying to learn to play by the rules of the Chinese market.
Earlier this fall, Zuckerberg expressed his desire to find a way to enter China "on our terms," having understood that the China market "is extremely complex and has its own dynamics."
He is certainly mindful of Google's failed attempt to challenge local laws in China. He will also be familiar of the unsuccessful runs of eBay and Amazon in China, having been distanced by local competitors Taobao and Dangdang.
Even Google itself was losing ground to Baidu way before the US search giant vowed to pull out of China earlier this year.
Despite his cautious attitude, the challenges facing Zuckerberg's ambition here are still colossal.
