Facebook Offers $85 Million To Acquire Chinese Social Networking Site Zhanzuo.com
Facebook is said to have offered $85 million to acquire Zhanzuo.com, a Chinese social networking site with seven million users. — According to The Times, Jack Zhang, Zhanzuo's chief executive …
Context & Ripple Effects
Six months ago TechCrunch was asking who would buy Facebook — today the buyer's role has flipped. The shift is bankrolled by Microsoft's confirmed $240 million investment at a $15 billion valuation, secured just three days before this report, which turned Facebook from acquisition target into a company with currency to spend.
The Times of London reports Jack Zhang, Zhanzuo's chief executive, as the source for the $85 million offer — an unconfirmed figure for a site with seven million registered users. That the story ran on both sides of the Atlantic the same week signals how much attention any credible Facebook move into China commands.
First-order effects
- Zhanzuo's seven million users become Facebook's fastest available route into a Chinese market where its brand has no local footprint — if the rumored deal closes on Zhang's terms.
Second-order effects
- Rival Chinese social networks now have to price in a well-funded Western competitor buying distribution rather than building it, and US peers face pressure to answer with their own China entries or partnerships.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Western social platforms enter China through acquisition of local incumbents rather than greenfield launches — trading control of the product for immediate scale in a market whose regulatory structure favors domestic operators.
The trend: US social networks are shifting from treating China as unreachable to treating it as buyable, with cash-rich platforms like Facebook using M&A instead of organic entry.