Tuesday, September 1, 2009

China Mobile to Integrate App Store with SNS, IM

A representative for China Mobile's (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) app store, Mobile Market, said at a recent forum that as an open platform, Mobile Market is making continual improvements, and has already added recommendation functionality for users to suggest applications to friends. The representative said that in the future, China Mobile will also integrate its Fetion instant messaging service and its SNS into Mobile Market. For example, Fetion users will be able to see recommended applications in their buddy list, and to encourage users to recommend applications to their friends, Mobile Market will reward users with redeemable points based on an SNS system.
The representative said that users' past purchases are recorded and displayed in their Mobile Market user profiles, such that users who swap phones still have access to their applications and will not be charged for downloading again. When asked about the upcoming release of the OPhone and its marketing impact for Mobile Market, the representative said that China Mobile does not view the app store as a means to pressure users into trading their phones for an OPhone model.

eLong Develops Renren.com Plug-In

Online travel services provider eLong (Nasdaq:LONG) and Beijing-based online entertainment company Oak Pacific Interactive plan to release an eLong booking widget for Oak Pacific Interactive's social networking service site Renren.com (formerly called Xiaonei.com) September 4, Sina reported August 28 citing eLong CEO Cui Guangfu. Reports in mid-August said that Oak Pacific Interactive will continue to purchase shares in eLong in order to gain "speaking rights" and better integrate the companies' user bases.

Monday, August 17, 2009

No Xiaonei Anymore, Here Comes RenRen

If I ask who are the popular social networking sites in China? I think most of you will talk about Kaixin001.com, QQ, 51.com and Xiaonei.com. However, since yesterday, there is no Xiaonei.com anymore, Joe Chen, CEO of Oak Pacific changed its name from Xiaonei.com to RenRen.com.

But why changing the already well-known Xiaonei.com brand to Renren.com (brief history of Renren below)? Some people think it is because Xiaonei means “in campus” in Chinese, which limited its users bases on university and college users. By changing its name to Renren, which means “everyone” in Chinese, can help to promote to white collar users, this market is now dominated by Kaixin001.com.

That’s why there is also rumor that Joe Chen plans to merge all three SNS sites under Oak Pacific, i.e. Xiaonei, MOP and Kaixin.com, into Renren.com. But they denied the rumor. If so, they already have Kaixin.com which compete head-to-head with Kaixin001.com on white collar users, why bother to change the name of Xiaonei. After Xiaonei changed name and strategy, will there be another site who can dominate the university and college users SNS market? Will it be QQ Xiaoyou?

Renren.com actually is not a new site, which was founded in 1999 and was a quite high-profile website during the Internet Bubble, it went bankruptcy in 2001. Joe Chen bought Renren.com domain name in 2005. Joe Chen relaunched RenRen.com as an online classified site in 2006, but it was shut down again in 2007.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Kaixin001 to Announce New Funding

Beijing-based social networking site Kaixin001.com plans to announce new second-round funding at the end of March, reports Sohu quoting an unnamed insider from investment bank and Kaixin001.com financial consultant China Renaissance.

An unnamed insider said in early March that three venture capital firms, including existing investor Northern Light Venture Capital (NLVC) and Ceyuan Ventures, had agreed to invest in the site as part of second-round funding that could total $20 million. NLVC completed investment in Kaixin001.com in 2008; NLVC Partner John Wu said in September of that year that his firm planned to invest $4-5 million in the site.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Oak Pacific to Enter Japanese Market

According to an employment advertisement released by Chinese Internet platform provider Oak Pacific, the company is looking to find a Japanese product manager to oversee Oak Pacific's Japanese SNS product development.
A Japanese domain for Oak Pacific's SNS Kaixin.com (kaixin.jp) has been registered, with a Chinese-language SNS platform already established on the site.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Campus SNS Site Tongxue Nabs $6M Investment

 Campus social networking site Tongxue.com has received investment of $6 million from venture capital firms and the Tano China Private Equity Fund I (TCPEFI), reports ChinaVenture. Tongxue.com expects to grow from its current 10 million users, 70% of whom are college students, to surpass 30 million registered users by the end of 2009, reports qq.com quoting company President Zhu Huaming. Tongxue.com has completed the $6 million in funding as well as some previous angel investments, and it expects to break even in 2010, said Zhu. Zhu said the $6 million investment can support the site for two to three years, and it plans to spend most of the funding on product innovation and brand promotion. Tongxue.com currently has twenty to thirty employees, said Zhu. The site was founded as FaceRen.com in May 2006 and changed its name to Tongxue.com in March 2008.

Sohu's ChinaRen Adds SNS Functions

Sohu (Nasdaq:SOHU) has updated its alumni site ChinaRen.com to offer social networking functions including a personal homepage that lists contacts, groups, blogs, greetings, latest visitors and photos, reports ccw.com.cn. ChinaRen has nearly 100 million users and more than 1 million unique daily logins, said the report. Sohu acquired ChinaRen in 2000, one year after the site was launched.