Facebook looks for “likes” in China
Palo Alto, CA, United States (AHN) – Facebook has its sights on China as its looks for growth.
The social network behemoth, whose membership is fast approaching a billion, is looking for “likes” in what it hopes is its next big frontier–the Asian nation of China.
In the company’s initial public offering filing last week, Facebook said, “China is a large potential market for Facebook.”
China, with its booming population of 1.3 billion, offers the growth potential Facebook needs to boost its advertising sales worldwide and justify its high valuation of between $75 and $100 billion.
Facebook aims to raise $5 billion in an IPO sometime this spring or summer. The company added in its filing, “There are more than two billion global Internet users and we aim to collect all of them.”
But tapping into the tough, stringent and highly regulated Chinese market is not easy feat. No just because China’s RenRen social network, and Sina, parent of Chinese micro blogging service Weibo, are the dominant players in the country. But also because access to Facebook is blocked in China, and there is no indication that is to change anytime soon.
Facebook also acknowledged concerns about its ability to comply with censorship laws in China.
Doing business in China would also require additional staffing, and employees familiar with not only with China’s laws and regulations, but also the country myriad customs, superstitions and ideologies.
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