China Tours Email

Tech Wars: Why Facebook Could Be A Social Outcast In China

There have been many business ventures that  failed in China . These companies foolishly walked into the market with high hopes and left with their tail between their legs.

Will Facebook be next to take the dreaded walk of shame?

Rumor has it, Facebook has plans to enter China's market by teaming up with Baidu ( BIDU ), China's well established search engine site. The Google of China, if you will.

But wait, isn't Facebook blocked in China? Why yes, yes it is, but apparently this minor roadblock can be avoided: The brainchild of Facebook and Baidu will not be integrated with the rest of the facebook's global access.

This has to do with China's extraordinary internet regulations, the same "that defeated other Western internet giants like Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon and Twitter."

In that respect, one of the appeals to partnering with Baidu is that the company "has one of the best relationships with the government in terms of how they deal with media censorship," according to T.R. Harrington, founder and CEO of Darwin Marketing.

It's possible this bond could give Facebook the helping hand that other failed business ventures lacked.

And sure, the appeal of China is understandable, Facebook has over 750 million users on the global market and it's already growing in other asian markets. China's massive internet user population could mean serious business. Furthermore, as " Thoughtful China " host Trevor Lai puts it, "can any company's global strategy truly be complete without China?

But when it comes down to the services Facebook provides, China already has their fair share of successful and established social media sites, "such as RenRen, Kaixin001, Qzone and 51.com, Tencent's QQ instant-messenger platform and Sina's red-hot microblogging service Weibo." (via  adage ) Facebook's new venture won't even be allowed to integrate the China with "The Rest of the World," so it's not even breaking new ground.

In fact, many analysts and social market experts believe Facebook is simply too late to take a significant hold on the market. On some level, you have to wonder whether this is worthwhile for Facebook.

And more to the point, will it work where others have failed? To help you understand Facebook's competition in the social media market, we list below the  Chinese internet companies  with an exposure to these trends:

Analyze These Ideas (Tools Will Open In A New Window) Internet Information Providers Industry. Market cap of $57.33B. Current price at $161.06. Exhibiting strong upside momentum--currently trading 9.72% above its SMA20, 19.04% above its SMA50, and 31.24% above its SMA200. The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 7.73% over the last week.