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  • Facebook Focuses on China for Future Growth

    In case anyone was still wondering about Facebook's financial strength, last week's filing with the SEC in advance of the company's IPO revealed some staggering figures. Here, from Statista , is a look at the company's revenue and net income over the last five years: The SEC filing also reveals some of Facebook's plans for future growth . And China is a big part of the future of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg discussed Facebook's China goals with Charlie Rose back in November. Here is an excerpt from that interview: Watch the full interview here .

  • Eric Jackson: Lessons from Zuckerberg on Making Inroads in China

    With reports that Facebook and Baidu have reached a deal to start a Facebook-like social networking site in China (the deal is still pending), Eric Jackson points to some important lessons in how Mark Zuckerberg has been doing business in China. Jackso, who writes the Tech and China blog for Forbes , says Groupon 's Andrew Mason, among others, could learn a lot from Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg understood that getting into the China market had to be a top priority for Facebook, so he made it a top priority for himself. And Jackson says these are the four main takeaways from how Zuckerberg approached the market: 1) Know what is important and what isn't important. 2) Don't delegate what's important. 3) Don't kid yourself that you're funny when you're not. and 4) Show a little respect towards others. Read 4 Things Groupon's Andrew Mason Needs to Learn from Mark Zuckerberg here .

  • Viet Nam's Potential as a Key Global Tech Sector

    EBay's latest Asian pursuit has global tech analysts watching Viet Nam. After trying and failing to enter the Chinese market, eBay has acquired a stake in Peacesoft , a Vietnamese e-commerce company. Forbes contributor Rebecca Fannin says this new venture presents an interesting case study for the potential of the Viet Nam as "the next frontier in Asia for tech investment." She cautions us not to expect Viet Nam's tech market to be on par with China or Silicon Valley, but it could still be a key spot: How this new eBay of Vietnam fares could impact many business models that have been adopted from the U.S. and China and are being tried in Vietnam now. There’s an Amazon and Dangdang of Vietnam – that’s VinaBooks. There’s a Google and Baidu of Vietnam – that’s Socbay. In Forbes, I wrote about how its risk-taking founder Nguyen Xuan Tai even turned down an acquisition offer from the Mountain View-based search giant back in 2006 and now owns the mobile search market in Vietnam – way ahead of Google. You can bet that Vietnam now has multiple GroupOns as well. The lead one is NhomMua.vn, invested in by GroupOn cloner Rebate Networks from Berlin and IDG Ventures Vietnam. China’s social networking giant Tencent has a copy too – Zing from an upstart in Saigon, VNG, which I wrote about in Forbes Asia. Tellingly, Tencent invested in VNG and its former M&A director Johnny Shen joined the Vietnamese upstart in 2008 as chief financial officer and executive vice president of business development and strategy. Vietnam’s talented and entrepreneurial software whizzes are the draw. But make no mistake –the market’s ecosystem for tech venture is no match for Silicon Valley or China’s own innovation hotspots. This nation of 89 million people has a relatively low 27 million Internet users but does rank up there with 66 million mobile phone subscribers, with newly launched third-generation mobile service beginning to take off. Read eBay Tries Vietnam After China Bust here .

  • Forbes Profile: Young Chinese Entrepreneurs

    Sometime in the next five years, the number of people in China under 30 years old will come close to matching the EU's total population, writes Hannah Seligson of Forbes. And she says a lot of them are "embracing entrepreneurship" rather than idolizing Mao: The incomes of twenty-somethings in China grew 34% in the past three years, the largest growth of any age group, according to a survey by Credit Suisse ( CS - news - people ). While large industries in China--such as banking, steel, telecommunications and electricity generation--are still essentially state-owned, a growing chunk of new wealth being created comes from the hard work and vision of scrappy upstarts. Seligson profiles nine young Chinese entrepreneurs, from several new leaders in social-media, to a market-research firm that works with multinational giants like Nokia and PepsiCo to learn about the habits of China's youth. Take a look here .