FACEBOOK AND CHINA

PESEK: FACEBOOK, CHINA HAVE A LOT IN COMMON

William Pesek

The Denver Post, February 26, 2012

Mark Zuckerberg is pulling off a feat bigger than becoming the world's richest 20-something: thriving in the cyber age even before "friending" the most populous nation and biggest Internet market.

Facebook's founder will soon have to "like" China, where his website is banned. A post-initial-public-offering Facebook will have shareholders demanding that it tap China's 1.3 billion people, and now. Such is life when your business model is predicated on ever-growing ranks of users updating, sharing and poking to make advertisers and investors rich.

Zuckerberg will certainly face difficulties. Facebook's role in the Arab Spring movement caused many sleepless nights for Communist Party bigwigs. Yet more focus should be on the things China and Facebook have in common — things that may not jibe with Zuckerberg's claims of making the world a better place.

China's leaders will expect Facebook to bow to their censorship demands the way Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems have. Twitter recently made an about-face, announcing it will block posts on behalf of governments. And Facebook will look forward to mining what it can from China's masses, just as it does America's.

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