

If Facebook Could Enter China, Here Are Some Of The Hurdles - nekojima
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/05/if-facebook-could-enter-china-here-are-some-of-the-hurdles

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yiran
If you ask Chinese internet users, most will be skeptical of Facebook's
prospects in the country. The social media market was already dominated by
Chinese companies, there seems little left for a new player. Even my fellow
Chinese in US spend more time on RenRen, QQ and such than Facebook and
Twitter. Understanding the rules and consumer preferences in this lucrative
market is difficult as hell. The Chinese are more willing to flock to a
domestic copycat of a service innovated by the west, even the copycat was
inferior. They will complain about how the domestic version is buggy, lousy,
unethical and evil, but still choose it over a western alternative. I have
wondered why for quite a few years, and still cannot come up with a logical
answer. Yet one example had once offered me part of the explanation. Giant
Interactive is a leading online MMO company in China, when they stared their
games weren't as good as Korean or US ones; but they sent thousands of
employees out and installed their game in countless internet cafes in the
second tiers cities across the country, along with their other Chinese dirty
tricks, Giant managed to captivate millions of players and secured their
revenue stream. The Chinese companies are simply closer to its audience, they
can afford to go to their audience, literally face to face. The key to success
of almost all local Chinese companies, lies in the millions of outdated
computers piled in the cheap rooms of low-class internet cafes in lower-income
cities and rural areas: places quite impossible for international companies to
reach.

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3piphany890
if facebook could enter china, we'd have a triopoly of china, the us, and
russia

