Facebook probably won't get into China, and it shouldn't want to

Tech in Asia analyses the Facebook-China relationship

Mark Zuckerberg has been in the China news again of late. His purpose, running around Beijing, as far as anyone can tell, is to try to convince Chinese officials to let Facebook into the country.

Ain’t gonna happen…

Facebook entering China is probably not a pretty picture for the company. It would probably have to form a joint venture with a local internet company, build a service that was completely segregated from the rest of the world’s Facebook users, construct massive censorship and filtering systems, and store all of its China-related data on Chinese servers.

Even if Facebook was willing to make all of those concessions there’s little reason for China to let Facebook in.

China’s government stands to gain virtually nothing from Facebook entering the country. The country’s social media market is currently dominated entirely by domestic companies. Only Chinese companies benefiting from China’s social media market, is better economically.

Having China’s social media controlled by Chinese firms is also better for information control.

…and Facebook shouldn’t want it to

Honestly, authorities biting on Zuckerberg’s pitch might be the worst possible outcome for Facebook anyway. After an early burst of interest, Facebook would have little chance for sustained success in the Chinese market.

Facebook launching in China would be like Myspace relaunching in the US.

China already had a Facebook. It had a few, actually. But these sites fell out of fashion years ago as newer and more mobile-friendly forms of social media came along. 
 

So if Facebook does enter China, after the initial excitement dies down, it’ll be left offering a product that feels woefully out of date, years behind the rest of the social media market. 

 

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.