If at first you don't succeed....

The news that eBay is having a second crack at Japan set me thinking. What do the big US Internet brands have to do to be successful in Asia?

I had just got off the phone with a reporter who was asking me what was the significance of the Li Ka Shing/Facebook deal. Speculations is rife in Hong Kong that the real significance of this will be a Facebook link to the Tom Group, giving them a leg-up into China. Murdoch's MySpace is already there along with a raft of local Chinese sites.

I'm not clear how big a deal the social networking phenomenon is yet in China. There seems still to be a strong preference there for more BBS-style communities. I am not, though, really an expert in this field and am very ready to stand corrected if I'm wrong.

Update: BusinessWeek's view on the eBay/Yahoo! Japan deal is an interesting one. They say its "less a comeback than a shrewd move to tap into the Japanese market without having to start from scratch".

Another update: Tangos, as often, has more meat to put on the bones here over on his China Web 2.0 Review blog. There's some interesting stuff here, particularly about Facebook's possible China acquisition strategy and company called Fenbei.com.