With a population of over 1.3 billion people, China is a place of great opportunity for many businesses including Facebook. It has been rumored through the grapevine that Facebook is making a move into the incredibly large market. Many companies in the past, including Google, have entered the Chinese market and been unsuccessful. Will Facebook experience the same fate?
Since 2007 there has been talk of Facebook entering the Chinese market, but now there is a lot of information rising to the surface and its coming from credible sources.
One of Facebook‘s biggest challenges is that the country is known for its closed nature tendencies. Unlike the United States, China regulates and filters a great deal of online content to its citizens. This means you Facebook in China will most likely be confined within the Great Firewall of China. So, don’t expect to “Friend” anyone in China anytime soon.
According to TechRice, Facebook is planning on partnering with China’s current largest search engine, Baidu. Hu Yanping, the founder of Data Center of the China Internet (DCCI), tweeted that Facebook has already signed official documents with Baidu to develop a new social network in China.
Rumors are spreading that say Baidu visited Facebook Headquarters in February and that the two are now building a new social media website together.
So far everything is mostly speculation and rumors, but it seems Facebook is planning something big within the borders of China. Keeping the last few months of protests in Northern Africa and the Middle East in mind, it is likely China will want to prevent a revolution within its own borders and therefore keep tight reigns on Facebook through controlling what they may or may not do.
Will Facebook experience its first big failure or another big success?
