Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Kaixin's clone war

Happy net (kaixin001.com) of all of a sudden popular, SNS (SocialNetworkSoftware, social networking software services that the social website category) market has become an instant Internet market a major hot spots, all kinds of copying the "happy network" model has been copied to varying degrees. Even the happy-founder of Network Binghao old boss Sina has also set up their own community "network happy." Professional analysts point out that such type of social model on the Web site user lack of attractiveness for a long time, its profitability can not reflect the currently Wind also rely on the live cast.

Emergence of dozens of "happy net"

In mid-October, the school has a network of high-profile Oak Pacific Group announced that it has purchased under the domain name kaixin.com and put them on the happy version of the Oak Pacific network.

It is reported that thousands of rubber version of the network is not only happy to promote happy with the original model of the same network, even the login page, as well as the content is almost exactly the same as the original happy network.

In addition, Baidu log on, type the words "Happy net" search "network happy" for dozens. And its interface with the original model is very similar to the network happy.

Not only various types of small sites have been "happy" list, and portal operators also want to share. At present, Tencent, Sina, Sohu and Netease, and other traditional portals have been to strengthen its function of SNS, Yahoo China also officially announced the "relationship" SNS services. In addition, in September this year, China launched a mobile phone-based SNS communities, the new Unicom Unicom also announced the "new forces" targeting young people's SNS site has been online beta.

However, experience so much, "Li Gui," has always been low-key, "Li Kui" network is still happy to choose silence.

In response, some analysts believe that the networks are not happy because of a registered trademark, Oak Pacific Group introduced the "cloning" page not involve infringement, but the Oak Pacific, as well as the many "happy network," the emergence of the network will undoubtedly have a happy normal Interfere with the development.

The lack of freshness marketing model

In addition to the name of the copy was happy with the characteristics of network applications, as well as the success of viral marketing has also been quick to copy each SNS website.

The network's happy to become famous, copy directly from Facebook's "Friends forSale" (the sale of a friend) and "ParkingWar" (for parking), the game has become essential to the SNS website, and even Sina has also set up a blog The same item of the game.

In fact, not only encounter the "copy" of the crisis, genuine happy network users also face severe challenges mount.

Despite the success of viral marketing rely on the rapid accumulation of a lot of users, but after a few months time, over-reliance on small game to win the attention of the user mode from the beginning of the test. There are a lot of happy network users because of a lack of freshness and start moving away happy network.

iResearch Ereli consulting the latest data show that in August 2008 Chinese community services the user a total of 165 million people. Although their total monthly visits, as well as the overall top of the page view, but the leisure services friends users in the community services in the fourth, with the blog, community services, such as a greater gap.

IResearch analysts believe that casual friends site determines the characteristics of the products of its customers and the number of visits the page a few browsers are higher, but it effectively reflects the view of time on the low side of the users of such sites is still a lack of lasting appeal.

In addition, analysts pointed out that the poor profitability of the SNS, most of them still rely on venture capital to live, but so far this year, SNS only in the field of school network, 51.com, was happy the financing network.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The China social network clone war

In the not-quite-so-distant future in a universe not so far away, a war has begun. Well actually, it's not surprising that in a country renowned for reverse engineering and manufacturing knock-off handbags that a war has begun for the hearts and clicks of netizens throughout China.
Last Friday it was reported through qq.com that Oak Pacific, the company behind Xiaonei.com had registered the domain name kaixin.com. This comes only a month after Kaixin001.com secured USD 4-5 million in venture capital.
Oak Pacific Interactive, who purchased Xiaonei only in October 2006 for USD 2 million has been successful in capturing the student market but falls behind Kaixin001 in capturing the white collar worker market. Oak Pacific itself is no stranger to the clone sites as it's highly popular Xiaonei.com network also has it own clone Xiaonei001.com and have obviously decided that it is a strategy worth trying.
Oak Pacific is arguably one of the most powerful force in China's social networking business having received a committment in April this year for USD 430 million for 35% of the company, from a consortium of VC funds led by Softbank.
Techcrunch reports that Kaixin001.com is

...China’s fastest growing social network having amassed a staggering 7.5 million users in the first 5 months since it launched in May 2008. The site tripled Twitter’s traffic reach in the month of September alone and is currently the 250th most popular site on Alexa worldwide.
To some, the domain kaixin.com lost to such a strong competitor may be akin to having one's hand cut off. We will wait to see if this young new social media Jedi will have the strength to fight the financially stronger empire that Oak Pacific represents given this latest blow.

source:shanghaiist

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

51.com Will Launch Online Game Platform

The Chinese social networking services website 51.com.com is planning to launch a game platform in the coming days and it will also be the first time for the website to tap the game industry since it gained a huge investment from China's leading online game company Giant Interactive Group.
As a leading SNS website in China, 51.com has been planning to shift to the commercial game sector before it gained the investment from Giant Interactive Group in July 2008 and the company has set up a department that is responsible for the development of online games. Over several months' preparation, 51.com has recently announced that its game platform will be formally launched in mid-October and a beta test, in which about 60,000 to 70,000 people will participate, will begin at the same time.
The game platform of 51.com will focus on leisure and friend-making functions, providing poker and board games as well as other leisure games.
Hu Bin, general manager for 51.com's Game Business Department, says this game platform of 51.com is fully self-developed by the company and 51.com owns the complete intellectual property rights. In regards to the large user group of 51.com, the company adopts servers with extra large capacity in the management of the platform. At the same time, relevant emergency measures are also ready to deal with any situation.
In the future, the company will launch more game brands and provide a platform for online games.

source:chinatechnews

Monday, October 13, 2008

Xiaonei Launches Payment System for Application Developers

Chinese social networking site Xiaonei will launch its new "Xiaonei Dou" ("Xiaonei Beans") payment system and open API this week to provide payment services for Xiaonei application developers, opening up a new profit channel for developers.

"Xiaonei Beans" are a virtual currency used throughout Xiaonei as a way of encompassing payment service plans. The site has established an online payment system connected to major banks and online payment processors. Once the company connects the payment system to its open API, third-party developers will be able to accept payment through their applications.

Source:marbridgeconsulting

Yahoo China announced SNS

Yahoo China to Tencent Technology confirmed that the formal launch of the SNS social networking services, and the service to be known as the "relationship."

Yahoo announced the introduction of Chinese business SNS

It is understood that the "Yahoo" has taken the real-name system, and other SNS differentiated services is that it does not rely on the popular website of the game together, but rely on word-of-mouth life of Yahoo services platform, based on the service life of a friend among the dissemination of information. In the future, "Yahoo" will be in the catering services, classified information, to study film, tourism, shopping, and other investment services continue to improve the living.

Tong said, "Yahoo" will be based on the true relationship between the user's mailbox, Yahoo and word-of-mouth information service life of integration, each other. For domestic SNS sites to entertainment-oriented features, Tong commented that "the sale of slaves" and other users of the game did not give a specific value, and life and the information will complement each other very well to make up for this deficiency.

Tencent Technology, "China CEO of the Internet macro investigation" revealed that a group of entrepreneurs in the new wave of wireless Internet and the SNS is a CEO who has been the most promising model. Survey shows that 45.90 percent of the subject CEO of the new wave of pioneering group of the most promising wireless Internet, 40.98 percent of the CEO, said the most promising SNS.

Prior to September 26, 56.com launched flash-based game of the SNS platform, users can add the components involved in the game. At present, many Internet companies into the SNS application, Yahoo China is a late start.

Yahoo China and word-of-mouth network from June 1 since the beginning of integration, combined to set up Yahoo's reputation.

The combined company is headquartered in Beijing, the network of word-of-mouth reputation as Yahoo's business operations are still operating in Hangzhou, the former president of Yahoo China as Hang Jin Jian, president of Yahoo's reputation, the company focused on the future development of services based on the life of e-commerce, community and communication Business, and so on.

Friday, October 10, 2008

China Unicom Enters SNS Sector

Chinese telecom operator China Unicom (CHU) has opened a social networking services website called u-powerbook.com, targeting at the young users of its Up-Power brand.
Since China Mobile entered the Internet sector and set up its 139 Community, China Unicom has been planning its own SNS website. After the completion of its merger with China Netcom (CN), the company will start a large-scale promotion of this website. In fact, China Unicom started to prepare for the project at the beginning of 2008 and its focuses, like China Mobile's 139 Community, are the young mobile phone users in China. This website, which is recommended on the official website of China Unicom, is now undergoing a beta test.
With an interface which is similar with that of the international SNS Facebook.com, the community website of China Unicom integrates services and functions such as an email box, mobile phone instant messaging tool, real-name community and point-based shopping for users.
He Siyuan, CEO of Beijing Caizhi Futong Science and Technology Development and the person in charge of the development of China Unicom's SNS website, says that the website has already undergone three to four months of trials in Liaoning Province and more than 200,000 China Unicom's users have registered as its members. The trials will continue to be expanded to other areas in China, including Jiangxi Province.
source:chinatechnews

BlogBus launch SNS

BlogBus today issued an invitation to participate in the user stations closed its online service SNS "neighbors."

Bus blog notice that the neighboring navigation is based on the background of the important features to add, the user can not only invite, add friends, and friends can also view the recent developments, such as the updated image, personal data and a new log and so on. The function is still at least one phase of the closure, 100 stations have already accepted the invitation to participate in online users.

COO bus blog WEI Hui said in his blog, the blog of the SNS bus service will not be as happy as a social network of networks, such as the introduction of "slave trade" or "parking dispute" and other games, the SNS "The SNS will be present and are not large The same. "

The adoption of hosted blog can understand how many friends of the doubt, WEI Wu Hui said, "I never thought that this SNS, 90% are their friends list, do not know what of the fun."

In addition, he stressed that the bus has achieved the blog user's blog and off, on its Web site registration does not mean that the blog opened. He disclosed that has been done in the relevant plans associated with the future users to blog on the bus to play SNS, at the same time will be able to import their stations outside of the blog.

Bus blog is the first Blog hosting service provider, is also the first commercial operation of the paid services provided by the Chinese Web site Blog. WEI Wu Hui believes that the cornerstone for the blog to be able to solve the SNS blog aggregation and blog to discuss the issue, but also the best prospects for the development of ideas.

SNS There is no doubt that in 2008 China became the most fire of the concept of Web2.0, but most of the social Web site has entered the same competition, online games, video industry are closely watching the SNS, hoping to find a breakthrough point. Analysts believe that the bus blog if you want to achieve a breakthrough in the SNS, the industry needs to bring new surprises.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

China SNS site review

As ordinary users and industry observers, I often compare a number of well-known in the industry on the sns, a long time, there is some idea, and I feel I have to write it down for reference. I often on the sns including 5gme.com tongshilu.com xiaonei.com hainei.com tongxue.com zhanzuo.com kaixin001.com yiqi.com 51.com mayi.com. I for one, said.

1, I often go to www.5gme.com (originally called 5gsns.com) because there are Hongbo, the old white, white crow in these people, together with the 5G is a circle inside it are numerous, highly interactive, It is said that people will go to one of the sites. 5gme background is the Dai Zhikang Ucenter structures, so the general functions, not too many of the functions of eye-catching point. 5gme the recruitment industry is a very useful function, whoever it to recruit top talent to be issued free of charge information.

2, my colleagues and I often go to www.tongshilu.com recorded, is techweb colleagues recorded the host, but recently the old way and to the small Horn, so activity declined. Colleagues recorded the background Ucenter also built a number of developed their own web game (start of the game, fishing, cs) have some fun, turnip green vegetables have all love to see you do not like the hi.

3, www.hainei.com at home and I often go to one of my earliest sns mixed, but at home since the sale of the Canadian population, there are a number of celebrities because it left for other reasons (Lao Tan, Xie, Hong-bo), I went to a small, but I have always thought that the user experience is at home and do the best, do not believe we can try. His recovery is very comfortable to use.

4, I often go to school www.xiaonei.com reasons, not because there are friends above, but as the largest sns website, it is necessary to look at, I basically have not above friends, too, to be limited to the purpose of Research in schools. Pre-school for a period of time (before the open api) often have bug, we have not, the school is the best imitation facebook, so good user experience, and the school can be described as a collection of external application, the application of the above really Yes.

5, accounting for www.zhanzuo.com seat because there is a good friend in the block account for the work, so often go to see. Recently they staged a bottle drifting, but I did not see anything new, but Block did not account for open api, which accounted for Block is not a small issue, sns the trend is opening up. Open markets will not necessarily, but certainly not open a dead end.

6, www.tongxue.com students must be activated in order to operate, I have not activated it again another day.

7, www.51.com site of the largest friends, I do not have certification through the video, there has been no opportunity to experience the fun of making friends. But I quite optimistic about the 51. We look at Pong to the East or to write the article, "How do I work through the network to make millions of" http://www.admin5.com/article/20080710/93205.shtml is still on 51 a few rumors, is the first 51, director of product is a not too academic, but very understanding of the post-80, he is said to have a few words on-line will be able to catch a girl, this age group who was very understanding. The second strategy is 51 people. 51 Tencent dug from a lot of people, and their salary cap is not as long as you have the ability to chat ultra-high salaries of the personnel, and treatment is confidential (including senior staff do not know).

8, happy www.kaixin001.com. If this is the site of the fire who? I feel happy-go, I recently received a junk e-mail was found in a long time I did not contact a few high school students to my invitation, it seems happy viral marketing is very, very successful. Net happy to see him be able to vote in the huge user base, and some polling tens of thousands of people in the interaction, or even hundreds of thousands of interactions in the morning saw a basically silly to vote (vote title: Kentucky Fried Chicken to the east, south dumplings aunt, To the west of McDonald's, Pizza Hut to the north, where you hungry. Launch: October 3 has the votes cast: 37,415 cut-off time: For-12-10 00:00:00) there are as many as 30,000 people to vote, The ability of a few can match? There are happy that the network often can not, the existence of these concerns. I would be happy network of early users, parking up very early, when I buy a mini cooper 6, I suddenly find themselves stuck to, so I can not stop the fun. Maybe one day I and many users are more or less the same situation. However, a large user base is a happy network of capital, who has been happy to invest, make sure you turn up.

9, ant ants www.mayi.com wheat field is well-known blog site, the blog is a wheat field business model, but the industry is too often a powerful opponent, looking for financing heard mayi, who are interested can go to talk wheat field, I In the field believe that sufficient funds will give investors a pleasant surprise. 1,000,000 RMB for a 1-year to do a Web site, the efficiency of the wheat fields or very high.

10, together with net www.yiqi.com Xie along with the network of teachers, and all sns is not the same as most of a Web site, Xie as a teacher to do windows (Xie think it's all sites are dos, he has to The thing is the windows). Along with the idea and other sns not, I can understand Xie estimated that 59 percent of the teachers, not the estimated number of people able to comprehend the pass.

Vegas, I talk about my understanding of the network together, one: an open platform for teachers Xie wrote in a row 10 to blog about what is open, I said here a few interested friends to see Xie The teacher's blog. The second is: data mining and the sns, Xie teacher, I cited an example in the web1.0 look at the times such as Sina home users, users click on the rate of 1% (Sina home and a few links to the user hits the ratio), web1.0 little progress in the search, such as the google search-click rate is 10%, Xie teachers to do is push you to the accuracy of the information can reach 30-50%. I have been trying to subscribe to the newspaper subscription together, the effect is good, I gave up 3 of the press are all I need to look at, but too little push content, and click up very troublesome. Third: Xie and other teachers have to fight the sns is, three years after the market (now the network along with the user experience, I beg to differ) This was the largest sns and other differences.

More than a few domestic sns's comments, purely from my own point of view of users and observers, and I guarantee that my heart is not from any Web site sns biased, but because of my limited ability or awareness to a sns That mistakes were made, but also invite you to generosity of spirit, and to me that in order to immediately correct.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Find your friends on the Web

Meet Tiffany. She is a 23-year-old woman from New York. Tiffany has just moved to London and is looking to make friends as she is new to the city.
She has made a profile on Facebook in the hope of meeting some like-minded people. She has even included a photo of herself, and some information about her favorite music, films and books. There's just one problem - Tiffany doesn't even exist.
Instead, she is the creation of Kaya Burgess, 23, a journalist from London, to see whether even someone who is fictional can make virtual friends in this age of Internet communication. Within a week she had over 100 "friends".
Tiffany decided to host her own birthday party in a bar, hoping to meet her new buddies. Everyone was invited, and her creator sat in the corner to wait and see if anyone turned up. After waiting for more than hour, nobody had. Tiffany would surely have been very upset - if she was a real person.
This experiment shows that on the Internet, people are willing to call just about anyone a "friend".
The growth of social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, has seen the line between real and virtual friendship become increasingly blurred. These sites enable users to create a profile of their personal information, keep in touch with their friends and even meet new people with similar interests. For some people, having more than 500 "friends" on a social networking site seems very natural.
Chai Lin, 26, who works for a record company, joined "Happiness" (www.kaixin001.com) after hearing about it from a friend.
"Now I have 201 friends but have only met 50 of them. I enjoy sending virtual gifts to my online acquaintances. It is a good way to maintain our friendship," she says.
Happiness is a lighthearted SNS featuring a series of games users can play with each other, while other sites are more focused on networking.
Tommy Qin, a 24-year-old management assistant at a Shenzhen-based foreign trade company, uses Xiaonei - another SNS - for business.
"It's much easier and faster to find friends with the same business interest online. I met a guy in the same business as me, and we share information and trade opportunities that are helpful to my daily work. Now we are good buddies online, but we've never met or even exchanged our real names," he says.
But the makers of Xiaonei, which is more serious in its content and tries to connect classmates and friends, are not keen for this trend to continue. Li Qing, from Xiaonei's marketing department, insists that the site is not a place to create virtual friendships.
"Xiaonei aims to connect acquaintances such as classmates and other users. It does not mean to encourage its users to expand their circle of friends on it," she says.
But there's a dilemma for Li, whose booming SNS also aims to expand its user base. With so many different sites available, young people like Qin are finding that more and more of their friendships develop online rather than in the real world.
A 2007 survey by the Horizon Research Consultancy Group showed that more than 36 percent of Chinese netizens have approached a stranger in cyberspace. The rate is much higher than in normal social situations such as business meetings or weddings. The same survey also found that 37 percent of people would never reveal their true identities and real thoughts on an SNS.
Wang Yuanyuan is one of these people. She is a 23-year-old clerk at a Hong Kong-based power plant, and acknowledges that the whole idea of an online friend is often little more than an illusion.
"I started chatting with strangers merely out of impulse and I never expected to make a 'real' friend. I often give fake names and made-up personal information, so how can I expect others to be real?"
Some worry that this approach to friendship will be damaging to young people in the long term. Yang Jianhua, a sociology professor from the Institute of Sociology of Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, warns that young people should not rely on social networking sites to find new friends.
"It's hard to get deep in the virtual world," he said. "These relationships are often based on games and so remain superficial. They can lead to an absence of intimate relationships in real life."

source:chinadaily