Facebook is ramping up new efforts in China, Techonomy’s David Kirkpatrick writes in South China Morning Post. It’s not hard to see why. China is by far the world’s largest internet community, the fastest-growing region for e-commerce, and soon to be the world’s largest economy. Google, too, is hot to re-enter China and is making good progress.
China is already the second largest source of advertising revenue for Facebook, as advertisers there seek customers around the world. But despite past stumbles, and while government control of the internet has only strengthened in China, these vastly profitable global companies desperately want in on the action.
But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shown extremely poor instincts navigating this opportunity, though he has shown perseverance. And after all, at this point there is little market demand for any of Facebook’s four billion-plus-user services. WeChat dominates China’s online social interactions, and already makes Facebook-like functions available. As in the past, Zuckerberg’s most recent effort will almost certainly fizzle out.
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Government + Policy
Why Zuckerberg Will Keep Failing in China
Despite impressive perseverance, Mark Zuckerberg's attempts to crack China are almost certainly destined to fail. Techonomy's David Kirkpatrick explains why, in this piece he wrote in mid-August for the South China Morning Post.
