Facebook and twitter are very popular in Western and North American countries. Recently, Facebook also did well in India, Indonesia and the Phillippines. However, no company’s global strategy can be truly complete without China. There has been rumor from two years ago that Facebook was going to corporate with Baidu to enter the Chinese market. However, up till now, it did not manage to do so. How come?
Viewing Chinese social media market, several companies have already occupied it. Sina weibo and Tencent weibo function similarly to Twitter, encouraged people to send short and clever blogs while Renren and Kaixin operate like Facebook, created the platform for people to share opinions with people they know from the real life. With respect to Sina Weibo, it includes the largest amount of celebrities, which is another eye-catching point that Facebook doesn’t have. As discussed above, the value Facebook can provide to Chinese Internet users now is fairly little in this quite mature market.
Furthermore, in the government perspective in China, myriad aspects of political and social situations are not allowed to publish. Young people in China prefer using Weibo to socialize, gossip, and discuss news as it is relatively safer to them not using the real name. In contrast, Facebook encourages people to share feelings and discuss everything with the real name. Even corporating with Baidu, who has the best relationship with the government, it is unlikely for Facebook to succeed in Chinese market if it cannot manage to explore additional value to provide to Chinese Internet users and adapt the Chinese political environment.
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