Chinas Baidu execs visit Silicon Valley for Facebook?

Unnamed Baidu executives have flown to Silicon Valley last week, according to reports from Sina. Even though Baidus PR declined to comment, this news has yet again triggered speculation about thepossibilityof Facebook in China.

We have been closely following the events that caused us to speculate about Facebookpossibly (finally) reaching the 457 million Internet users in China. It all started with Mark Zuckerbergs educationalvisit in China last December, where he reportedly met up with some Baidu and China Mobile executives. Facebook has also recentlylaunched an office in Hong Kong, which is strategically very close to China.Top that off with the puzzle piece that Baidu is planning to diversify by going social, which only reinforces all the vague evidences weve collected so far.

Its definitely hard to resist the sheer number of Internet users in China. Its undeniable how critical the country is for Facebook to finally hit the big one-billion mark. The country, however, has not been showing signs of easing up the Great Firewall it still aggressively blocks off content, such as the events thatoccurred in Egypt recently.

Once again, were thrown off track in this little, yet significant detective game. But then again, an analyst from Fudan University i! n China< a href="http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/02/18/father-of-great-firewall-of-china-says-hes-taking-one-for-the-country/">keeps our hopes up by saying that it is still possible because the Great Firewall of China is still underdevelopment and that the regulators are willing to listen to foreign countries opinions on the development of Chinas Internet, but [they] should have [their] own timetable

But I dont suppose the executives flew there for English lessons, right?DigiCha, Image Credit


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