Facebook’s Zuckerberg actively woos China

Attention China, Mark Zuckerberg just lobbed another friend request across the Pacific Ocean.

Zuckerberg’s latest attempt to woo the nation came in a 31-second video in which the Facebook chief executive wished everyone a happy Chinese New Year. He mentioned that the social network would be having a big party to celebrate, complete with a lion dance performance!

Isn’t that nice? Gosh, what a guy. Of course, we have to mention that Zuckerberg has some massive ulterior motives here.

He leads the world’s largest social network, with 1.39 billion monthly active users. But nothing lasts forever in the tech world. Threats such as Snapchat may be tiny by comparison, but Google was once small too in comparison to Yahoo. So Zuckerberg has to find some way to keep growing Facebook. The incredibly obvious solution is to get into China, with its staggering population of 1.4 billion. Facebook is essentially blocked in China. Imagine what being in China would do to Facebook’s stock price! (Apple is nodding its head.)

So it should come as no surprise that while Zuckerberg isn’t posting personal videos celebrating all of the holidays of countries his network is accepted in, he’s really happy to talk about his company’s Chinese New Year shindig.

The best example of Zuckerberg courting China came last October when he wowed almost everyone with a 30-minute interview given exclusively in Mandarin. Who has the time to learn a new language while running a company that’s worth $215 billion? Zuckerberg is so busy that he always wears a gray T-shirt, saying he wants to clear his mind and make as few decision about anything outside serving the Facebook community.

Somehow, he made time for Mandarin. Zuckerberg has described that interest as stemming from his love of challenges, and wanting to speak with some of his relatives. (His wife’s family is Chinese American.) That is all believable and admirable, but don’t forget that he’s a brilliant businessman with a social network to grow.