Sure, Facebook Looks Good in Chinese and in Russian, But Is It Even Wanted?

Facebook fans look to the social networks most recent ComScore numbers as a sure sign of worldwide domination, and touted the release of Chinese and Russian translations of the site as the best thing since sliced bread. In reality, the release of Chinese and Russian versions may be too little too late for two markets that already have their own established social networks. While Web 2.0 seems almost dominated by products from and designed for English speakers, both China and Russia offer plenty of competition for Facebook, and have many apps that have already gained a mainstream audience.

In Russia, Facebook has competition from at least three social networks. VKontake is a Facebook clone, possibly created with the downloadable application Kootali that lets users create a customized social network that looks virtually identical to Facebook, with only the applications missing (but really, would you miss the ability to throw sheep?)

Besides Vkontake, Russia has Odnoklassniki, which has over 10 million users. Geared more toward finding fellow alumni (the literal translation of the name is classmate) and connecting with them. Our own Svetlana describes it as "a very simple network… only intended to find former classmates, exchange message and show off photos in the various places you've visited to make your classmates envy you." She estimates that it's the third-best-known Internet brand in Russia.

China already has the same environment as Russia, with another Facebook clone called Xiaonei.com, which not only has the lion's share of the social networking audience in China, but has more money than Facebook has, having raised $430 million (USD) in investment capital. How can Facebook compete against a company that has more money that it does JUST for running in China?

It's going to take more than a localized translation to move Facebook into these markets, and I'm not sure that they are ready, or willing, to invest the time and energy to fight against the established locals. The translations may be more of a "nice to have" than the next step in a purported world domination tour.