Mark Zuckerberg’s China holiday last Christmas inspired widespread speculation about plans to bring Facebook to the world’s biggest internet market.Buzz has focused on a possible partnership with Baidu, China’s dominant search engine and a leading player in China’s tech industry. No formal plans have been announced, but the lack of a categorical denial from Mr. Zuckerberg’s camp suggests there’s truth behind the rumors.

There is no doubt that if Facebook is able to penetrate the Chinese market, that will be a huge accomplishment. There are many factors though that have to be considered.

Though social networking in general has been a hit in other Asian countries like the Phillipines, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, China is a different story all together.

Of the many challenges that Facebook should expect to face is the Chinese governments strong sensorship on anything new in the internet. For Facebook to be able to pass through all this strict censorship, a lot of changes may have to be made.

Then comes the problem of culture. Facebook and everything it stands for simply isn’t part of Chinese culture. This would mean that it would have to find a way to get people interested in the site in the first place.

Many other foriegn companies have tried and failed to infiltrate the Chinese market but whether Facebook will succeed is still to be seen.

Read more here.