Time's Man of the Year, Mark Zuckerberg Visits Baidu's Headquarters in China

Facebook is not currently in China. But Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is. He met with Baidu CEO Robin Li leading to a plethora of speculation, but, other than to say he is on vacation, there isn't an official explanation for the visit.

Zuckerberg actually has a deep interest in China having expressed his desire to have Facebook eventually available to Chinese users.

At the moment, the site is blocked in China along with Twitter, YouTube and other high-profile sites with social networking components.

As such, Facebook is denied access to the biggest internet market on the planet, one that could help the social network pass the one billion users mark.

As it stands, the really determined Chinese users can access Facebook, like they can the rest of the Internet via proxies and VPNs, but few go through all the trouble when there are local alternatives.

They may not be as good and they may be censored, but China's Great Firewall relies more on inconveniencing users than being impossible to bypass.

At the moment, the social networking space is rather disputed in China, but it's almost exclusively local players that are battling out.

Zuckerberg's interest in China is understandable, while Facebook dominates globally, China remains the biggest market, in terms of users, and it's a market Facebook has virtually no presence in.

But Facebook hasn't expressed any clear plans to try to enter China. Zuckerberg has been studying Mandarin for quite a while now and it seems it's more than just a hobby. He knows that the Chinese market is only going to get bigger. On the other hand, his girlfriend has family in China and his visit may be a more personal one that it would seem.

Zuckerberg is not saying anything for now, his visit was revealed when photos of him at the Baidu headquarters were leaked to the press. But anything he may be cooking could be big, from negotiations with the authorities for a local Facebook launch, to some sort of partnership with Baidu.