The interesting thing is whether or not the services will actually match what Chinese consumers want. Imagine if Baidu tried to launch in the US. For most of

The interesting thing is whether or not the services will actually match what Chinese consumers want. Imagine if Baidu tried to launch in the US. For most of us, we'd try it a few times for the novelty, but unless the product was knock-your-socks-off better, we'd keep getting stuck on things being a little quirky, a little unlike what we're used to, and eventually head back to Google or Bing. It's going to take a lot of real customer data to smooth off those rough spots. Google and Facebook have run trillions of A/B tests in the English speaking world, but how many have they done in China? Yes, it's arguably just a matter of throwing money at the problem, but it still means the launch will be lackluster. Also, I wonder how de-featured Google and Facebook would have to be on day 1 in China. This isn't a censorship thing, it's UGC and integration with local companies. Are you going to have enough advertisers to fill out things like the shopping carousels? Will Google's maps be as detailed as Baidu's cute pixel-art ones? Will any restaurant have more than four reviews?