As an active user of AWS China, let me tell you that don't take those words at face value. AWS China business actually is growing really fast for past several years.
In China(or South Korea, or Japan), it is totally a different story. Majority of the parents think education as an investment, thus one of the best places to do an education related startup would be in China.
Totally agree. After I cut my cable cord, the only thing I miss is live sports event. If this deal goes through, Google TV will become more attractive.
I am pretty sure that quite a few of those 20% went to facebook just because of the pre-ipo stock options. Others may look for a better career in this emerging company.
Facebook is becoming Tecent QQ in US. (If you dont know abt Tecent QQ, please google it). It implements ideas from emerging companies and squeeze them out because they have the most important thing: 500 Million eyeballs.
China has its own problem now. The inflation is really which drives the living cost and labor higher. Lots of companies are trying to seek cheaper labors in countries like Vietnam. But one thing is true that mobile is really big in Asia. With great infrastructure, you can have signals anywhere including in the subways which drives mobile consumption.
I stayed in MS research for a little while. Their research department is really really strong and they have a lot of cool stuff. If they can better transfer them into products, things will be different.