Facebook to Set Up Standalone China Service With Baidu

Based on their past actions, I feel like Google or Twitter would never do this, and that makes me respect them much more.

I failed to see the merit of such deal. In the high-end market, Baidu is notorious for its reputation. In the low-end market, Baidu cannot compete with Sina or Tencent, even RenRen. Facebook cannot enter a market with zero traction of social networking in China because the market is so saturated. Unfortunately, at this time of writing, Baidu has zero stake in social networking. It probably makes sense to an outsider since Baidu has huge Internet traffic. The sad part is, Baidu has tried, several times, but it never got its finger on online identity (Baidu IM, Blog, Youa etc.. Yes, they have their success in Baidu Tieba, but that's more like an online community rather than portable identity for most people).

I've written about it before: http://liuliu.me/%E9%9A%8F%E6%84%9F/facebooks-china-strategy and I will say it again, the joint venture thing never works, it didn't work before, it won't work this time too.

I really think Americans have to either step up to the plate when it comes to doing business with China or just STFU about all the issues we see over there. We complain about human rights violations, lack of freedoms etc but then continue to give this machine our money.

Voting with your voice means very little compared to voting with your wallet. If this upsets you (it doesn't really upset me) then you should leave Facebook.

When Google left China, it made me really admire and appreciate their service (I can't imagine giving more time/money to Google than I already do :)

Two Facebooks, one for China and one for the rest of the world.

Why does FB need to set up a standalone service in China, when any other foreign nation has the same FB as America's?