Facebook offered $85 million dollars for Zhanzuo.com, a Chinese social network.
China has an estimated 162 million Internet users, however upon Internet introduction into rural China, that number is expected to jump by 700 million. That’s why MySpace is working on entering the market as well.
It is difficult to estimate how much traffic Zhanzuo receives on a monthly basis. Looking at traffic analytics on Alexa.com, Zhansuo had a drop in traffic so huge that many analysts suspect it was caused by governmental censorship.
Unfortunately for MySpace and Facebook censorship would only increase if they were to move in. I doubt the Chinese Government would support the idea of Rupert Murdoch and/or a 25 year-old guy from Harvard controlling the most influential media outlet in the country.
Net Neutrality in the US
The story about Chinese regulation of the Internet prompted me to write this post about the importance net neutrality.
In case you are unfamiliar, many leading telecom and cable companies would like to restrict access to the Internet and charge users web content they already get for free.
In an interview with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, presidential candidate John Edwards said “I believe that if we do not guarantee net neutrality, the Internet could go the way of network television and commercial radio - with just a few loud corporate voices and no room for the grassroots and small entrepreneurs.”
I love that in America, a kid in a college dorm room can create a multi-million dollar company. For more information about net neutrality, check out WeAreTheWeb.org.
UPDATE: In all fairness, there are two sides to this debate. To learn about the other side, check out this article on CNN.com writen by Mike McCurry. Mike McCurry is a co-chairman of Hands off the Internet, a coalition of telecommunication-related businesses.
Mark Cuban also gave a decent rant against net neutrality on his blog.
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