China wants a piece of the Facebook pie. A piece “that matters“:
The cocky Chinese are not the only parties deluding themselves. Zuckerberg, in the words of one reporter, “believes that Facebook can be an agent of change in China, as it has been in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.” After the disastrous China experiences of Yahoo and Google and the troubled history of Microsoft there—not to mention Beijing’s recent tirade against foreign social media—the Facebook founder appears both arrogant and naïve.
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is reportedly “wary about the compromises Facebook would have to make to do business there.” If she loses her argument with Zuckerberg and Facebook enters China, the company will eventually be subject to demands to censor its sites, those both inside and outside China. That’s apparently why the Chinese want to own a big stake in Facebook. They are, in short, looking for control in the long run. No other explanation is consistent with the Party’s other media and “educational” initiatives.
Of course, a Beijing-influenced Facebook will be hit by even more bad publicity—and inevitably defections. Other social networking sites will spring up to capture fleeing users. The genius of America is that its open and broad market eventually punishes the arrogant and the naïve by allowing choice.
So who says MySpace is dead? Perhaps Rupert Murdoch sold it too soon.
The closest thing to an accurate representation
Stakeholders shown in this pie chart:
- Facebook staff: 30%
- Co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg: 24%
- Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz: 6%
- Co-founder Eduardo Saverin: 5%
- Napster’s Sean Parker, Founding President of Facebook: 4%
- Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm: ~10%
- Goldman Sachs: ~0.8%
- Goldman Sachs’ clients: ~3%
- Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm: ~1.5%
- Meritech Capital Partners: ~1.5%
- Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and Clarium Capital president: ~3%
- Elevation Partners (that’s U2?s Bono among others): ~1.5%
- Other investors: ~9.7%
I know Microsoft owns some too though, so this chart is incomplete. Upon Googling I can report that Microsoft has a 1.6% stake and the chart is also missing Hong Kong billionaire Li-Ka Shing’s 0.8%, TriplePoint Capital (though as a debt provider they own nothing), and Accel Partners’ investment which I don’t have a number for.
chart by http://learngraph.com