Website Hype

Heard the latest? Rumour has it that Facebook has made an offer of $85 million to buy Zhanzuo.com, which is China’s largest social networking site. And it’s no surprise that Facebook is after a piece of the action in ever fast growing China, where the economy has been booming for some considerable time, and demand for modern goods and services continues apace.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, there are some 162 million internet users in China, a figure which has grown by around 140 million users in the past seven years, despite some efforts on the part of the government to restrict or control use of the internet. And it seems that the current trend for social networking online, which has taken off exponentially in recent years, is by no means confined to the West, as around seven million Chinese internet users are on Zhanzuo.com.

It seems that the news of the $85 million offer has come from The Times, (that’s the UK Times), and now the word is out all over the web. The Times also reports that Zhanzuo.com CEO Jack Zhang, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, have had talks, but that no deal has actually been completed. It is intriguing that Facebook is denying all these reports.

So what will come of this? It will be interesting to see if Facebook eventually do acquire Zhanzuo.com, and how this might alter the site. The acquisition, if it does go ahead, will certainly give Facebook’s already strong international credentials an added dimension.