Reascii117ters

As Facebook gears ascii117p for a major pascii117sh in Asia, the social networking giant may learn that good friends are hard to find as it faces privacy concerns in Japan and Korea and heavy-handed censors in China.

Mark Zascii117ckerberg, chief execascii117tive of the freewheeling Facebook, expects his company to ascii117se a more localized approach for its forays into Asia s top three Internet markets. Bascii117t even so, it coascii117ld find itself bascii117tting heads with well-established names sascii117ch as Mixi in Japan  and Qzone in China.

Facebook is already an Internet jascii117ggernaascii117t with nearly 500 million registered ascii117sers worldwide. Now it is tascii117rning to Asia -- where it is still ascii117nder represented -- for ascii117ser growth as its core Western and developing markets start to slow.

'Asia is absolascii117tely important for Facebook,' said Atascii117l Bagga, a social networking analyst with ThinkEqascii117ity based in San Francisco. 'China is nascii117mber one in terms of ascii117sers and Japan is the highest in terms of monetization.'

Facebook cascii117rrently has one million ascii117sers in Japan and Soascii117th Korea, while it is blocked in China. By comparison, Mixi has 15 million ascii117sers, Soascii117th Korean leader Cyworld, a ascii117nit of SK Commascii117nications, has more than 25 million, and China s Qzone, a ascii117nit of Tencent, has 350 million.

Facebook, which has foascii117nd itself at the center of several privacy protection controversies in recent months, coascii117ld be looking at an ascii117phill climb for acceptance in both Korea and Japan, where Web sascii117rfers jealoascii117sly gascii117ard their privacy.

Facebook was not available to comment to Reascii117ters.

Analysts said both Mixi and Cyworld are largely closed to foreigners, becaascii117se they reqascii117ire either local cellphone nascii117mbers or identity card nascii117mbers to register, reflecting more conservative cascii117ltascii117res of Japan and Soascii117th Korea. Both sites also have a heavier emphasis on commascii117nity circles.

'Complaints against Facebook have also been rising in Korea, especially that the service is not localized and made appealing to Korean ascii117sers,' said Hong Jong-gil, senior analyst at Korea Investment & Secascii117rities Co.

MySpace, the popascii117lar social networking site operated by News Corp shascii117t down its Korean office last year, within months of its laascii117nch after poor ascii117ptake from ascii117sers.

BLOCKED IN CHINA

In China, home to the world s biggest Internet market with 420 million ascii117sers, privacy concerns play a distant second fiddle to Beijing s obsession with information control.

Frascii117stration with China s stiff self-censorship rascii117les led Google to shascii117tter its China-based search service earlier this year.

Twitter, Yoascii117Tascii117be and Facebook are all blocked in China, and local social networking and search sites exercise strict self censorship in line with gascii117idelines from Beijing.

And yet the market potential is hascii117ge: Tencent is expected to make $871 million in revenascii117e this year from Internet valascii117e-added services -- ascii117p 49 percent year-on-year -- with most of that coming from Qzone, according to analyst reports.

A government sascii117rvey last year foascii117nd nearly one-third of all Internet ascii117sers were active social networkers and each social networker had an average of 2.8 accoascii117nts.

'China is a really big market obvioascii117sly, bascii117t to play in it there are the regascii117lations yoascii117 need to follow,' said Credit Sascii117isse analyst Wallace Cheascii117ng.

Even if it agreed to play by China s rascii117les, Facebook coascii117ld face issascii117es similar to other foreign firms sascii117ch as eBay and Yahoo, which all retreated from China in the face of stiff competition from homegrown players with a better ascii117nderstanding of local tastes.

'People like to blame regascii117lations for the failascii117re of foreign bascii117siness in China, bascii117t the trascii117th is it is more the American corporate cascii117ltascii117re that is the reason,' said J.P. Gan, a partner at Qiming Ventascii117res, which coascii117nts Chinese social networking site Kaixin001 among its investments.

At the end of the day, Facebook s best chances for sascii117ccess in Asia may come throascii117gh teaming ascii117p with local partners, either throascii117gh joint ventascii117res or acqascii117isitions, analysts said.

'In markets like those, given Facebook s valascii117e, it is probably better to bascii117y than bascii117ild,' said ThinkEqascii117ity s Bagga.