Friday, June 20, 2008

Will Facebook Succeed in Russia?


The domination of the social networking site Facebook in the U.S. is undeniable. Thus far, the SNS giant has been able to spread this success in other countries. However, they might face their first major obstacle. It seems like a few decades before anybody here has said this but Russia could stop this powerhouse cold in their tracks. Funny? Not really.

Russian Roadblock

Facebook has picked Russia as their next potential hot spot, which seems extremely unlikely due to sub-zero temperatures. Other large internet players have tried the trip into Russia before such as MySpace and search king Google. It is hard to imagine that Google could not dominate in the Russian market as well as they have in the States. One explanation, according to The New York Times, is the popular Russian search engine Yandex. Their advantage is being a Russian product thus the language and culture is not a barrier to thrive. Facebook has a tough challenge ahead. Perhaps buying half of the Russian vodka supply could give a good name for Facebook over there. I'm just saying.

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