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Not really. The real reason is 2 letters long: QQ

EDIT: To explain and not be snarky, QQ is an IM/portal/social network/web mail/social game platform that is actually larger than Facebook. (Over 600 million active last I checked.) They completely dominate every aspect of Chinese web software.

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There would be many more using Facebook if it wasn't blocked. I'm not sure how it's doing now but I remember lots of students last year were joining xiaonei which is just a facebook duplicate for Chinese students only.

IMO many of these sites are blocked in China so Chinese companies can dominate the domestic market rather than for political reasons.

Not at all true. QQ is more akin to MSN than to Facebook (even though it tried to do social networking features, it did them late and poorly).

Facebook would be on this list if it weren't blocked in China: http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/07/china%E2%80%99s-top-4-soci...

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