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Facebook Still Looking at China as it Files for IPO

Facebook’s IPO filing this past week notes that the company is still indeed looking at China as a possible market for its popular social network, despite being currently blocked. While there have been no shortage of rumblings about about Facebook’s possible jump into China, when we asked representatives back in October), they were mum on the topic.

But in the recent filing does explicitly mention China more than a few times, perhaps most notably in this remark: We may enter new international markets where we have limited or no experience in marketing, selling, and deploying our products. For example, we continue to evaluate entering China. However, this market has substantial legal and regulatory complexities that have prevented our entry into China to date. If we fail to deploy or manage our operations in international markets successfully, our business may suffer.

The company adds that it is unsure if it can find any solution for “managing content and information” that can work for Facebook and the Chinese government. But it’s promising to hear that Zuckerberg and company are still actively looking for a way in. The filing also provides us with some important numbers about Facebook’s growth in Asia, which show a steady growth rate over the past two years, reaching 212 million by the end of 2011 (see interactive chart right). Of course, India and Indonesia, the second and third largest Facebook markets globally with about 43 million users each, represent the largest portions of that pie. Speaking of India (and of ‘filing’ for that matter), Facebook India filed its compliance report in Delhi court as it, along with 21 other websites (including Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft) had been ordered to remove offensive content. The BBC is reporting that both Facebook and Google India have removed some content in compliance with the order.