I failed to see the merit of such deal. In the high-end market, Baidu is notorious for its reputation. In the low-end market, Baidu cannot compete with Sina or

I failed to see the merit of such deal. In the high-end market, Baidu is notorious for its reputation. In the low-end market, Baidu cannot compete with Sina or Tencent, even RenRen. Facebook cannot enter a market with zero traction of social networking in China because the market is so saturated. Unfortunately, at this time of writing, Baidu has zero stake in social networking. It probably makes sense to an outsider since Baidu has huge Internet traffic. The sad part is, Baidu has tried, several times, but it never got its finger on online identity (Baidu IM, Blog, Youa etc.. Yes, they have their success in Baidu Tieba, but that's more like an online community rather than portable identity for most people). I've written about it before: http://liuliu.me/%E9%9A%8F%E6%84%9F/facebooks-china-strategy http://liuliu.me/%E9%9A%8F%E6%84%9F/facebooks-china-strategy and I will say it again, the joint venture thing never works, it didn't work before, it won't work this time too.