IAC is planning on spending $100 million on new ventures in China and is also looking to launch a Chinese version of Ask.com
According to the Wall Street Journal, IAC CEO Barry Diller said the new push into China would involve something that is “unique” and does not compete directly with existing players. The IAC owned travel site eLong has not be doing well in China, with Diller saying that “We bought eLong and promptly screwed it up.”
Diller said that online gambling was one area that IAC would consider in China. The China focused version of Ask.com will be available “within 2 years.”
Asked about the cultural difficulties of operating in China, Diller gave the WSJ a response that is bound to upset a number of TechCrunch readers in the United States, but certainly shows respect and recognition that American law is not supreme throughout the globe and that business is bound to follow the laws of the nations they operate in, even when they don’t like those laws: “Every place has got its constraints..It doesn’t bother me … When you operate in a country you play by the country’s rules.”