Online social networks popular in China

Online social networks are growing in popularity. Since launching in May 2008, the Chinese social networking website kaixin001.com has seen incredible growth. It is now the 13th most viewed site in the nation. But in an already crowded sector - and in a country where online copying is rampant - it's anyone's guess whether it will continue to remain popular. Who knows when and if another site will come along and surpass it.

Kaixin001.com

Daniella and Maggie, two twenty-somethings living in Beijing and working for Lenovo, are hooked on China's hot new craze. The western world has Facebook and MySpace; China has Kaixin, which means happy.
Kaixin001.com is similar to many other social networking sites, but also has online games. For example they have a game called Parking War where each user parks his or her cars in a friend's parking spot to earn virtual money. This money can then be spent on buying more cars. In the game Friend Sales, each user can be bought for a number of hours, and forced to do things like clean a toilet, make a cup of tea or sing a song.
Daniella Zhang, one Kaixin user said "Before work starts, I'll get on it and check it out, then during the day when I'm a bit bored, and then again at the end of work. I park my cars, buy some friends, vote in some polls."
Kaixin has quickly established itself as China's top social networking site. An estimated 30 million users log on everyday.
iResearch Consulting Group places the total market value of Chinese networking services in 2007 as upwards of 500 million yuan. Of this amount, social networking services accounted for more than half. The total market value is predicted to hit 1.6 billion yuan by 2011.
But, China's online market is different than many others because copying is rampant. If one site has even a hint of traction, others doing the exact same thing will spring up seemingly overnight.
After the recent success of kaixin001.com a copycat emerged. The registered, but previously inactive domain name kaixin.com was purchased in October 2008 and launched a site of similar design and operation to kaixin001.com.
The new Kaixin has become popular in its own right, thanks in part to people who think they're logging onto the original Kaixin.
Tan Xiaosheng, CTO of Myspace China highlights the instability of the market. He notes that even the top ranked sites still only reach a small percentage of China's vast population.
And while he expects the growth of social networking sites to continue at breakneck speed, he cautions that the turnover of sites could be greater than ever.
Tan Xiaosheng, CTO of Myspace China said "If one enterprise or a website doesn't build up their own core competence, and they can't produce a unique product they won't be competive. Also, if they don't have their own marketing, PR, or creativity, they won't survive."
Somewhat troubling for Kaixin is the fact that two of their most fervent supporters aren't convinced it has staying power.
Daniella says she is already beginning to lose interest in the site, while Maggie says the site could be a distant memory in a year's time.
What is clear is that social networking in China is already hugely popular and continues to grow. But for the dominant sites in the sector, the trick is not just getting to the top, but staying there.

source:cctv.com

China blacklists 17 more Web sites in porn crackdown

    BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- China has named and shamed another17 Web sites as part of a monthlong drive to stamp out online porn.
    The Web sites were accused of providing obscene content and of being slow to delete erotic materials after the campaign was launched on Jan. 5 by the State Council's Information Office, Public Security and Culture ministries and four other government agencies.
    The sites, including www.xiaonei.com, www. 9you.com, were urged to immediately delete obscene or erotic information and were threatened with closure if they ignore the warning made Tuesday.
    Public distribution of pornography is illegal in China. Previously, the country had blacklisted 33 Web sites, including search engine Google and Baidu and MSN China. Ninety-one other Websites have been shut down.
    China's Internet users hit 298 million in 2008, overtaking the United States as the nation with the world's largest online population, according to latest figures released by the China Internet Network Information Center.

Oak Pacific Opens Kaixin.com In China

The Chinese Web 2.0 company Oak Pacific Interactive has announced the opening of its social networking site Kaixin.com to developers.
The open platform of Kaixin.com will allow the third-party developers to place brand advertisements within the site's services and Kaixin.com will not participate in the profit-sharing of the advertising income of these developers.
A representative from the Oak Pacific Interactive told local media that the company has decided to develop Kaixin.com into a fully opened entertainment platform, which will adopt the same open platform rules as Xiaonei.com, but the website will launch a new payment system which is different from that of Xiaonei.com.
Xiaonei.com, another SNS website owned by Oak Pacific Interactive, launched the open platform on July 8, 2008. According to Xu Chaojun, vice president for China InterActive Corp and the person in charge of Xiaonei.com, the open platform of Xiaonei.com is like the API of Facebook and the Open Social of Google, which implements full open programming interface, protocol and structure.

source:chinatechnews.com

Oak Pacific Positions Kaixin.com as Open Entertainment Platform

Oak Pacific Interactive's Kaixin.com, a domain name purchased in October 2008, will be an open entertainment platform with third-party-developed widgets and advertisements, reports qq.com quoting unnamed insider. The company plans to announce Kaixin.com's orientation and development strategy on Friday, said the report.

Oak Pacific CEO Chen Yizhou has considered changing the name of campus social networking site Xiaonei.com to Xiaowai.com or establishing a new website called Xiaowai.com targeting white collar users, reports Sina quoting unnamed sources. "Xiaonei" and "Xiaowai" can be roughly translated as "in school" and "out of school," respectively. The sources also said that before purchasing Kaixin.com, Oak Pacific tried to acquire Beijing-based social networking site Kaixin001.com but was rejected.

source:jlmpacificepoch.com

Tencent Launches "Xiaoyou" SNS, Tests Web-Based IM Tool

 Tencent (700.HK) officially launched social networking service site xiaoyou.qq.com on January 6. The service, roughly translated as "school friends," allows users to login with their QQ accounts and add QQ group contacts. Tencent released a beta version of the SNS site that required real-name registration and integrated with Tencent personal space and blog service Qzone on June 6, 2008.

The Internet company is currently conducting alpha testing of "My QQ," a browser-based version of its instant messaging tool QQ. The new tool, which follows 2007's Web QQ beta 1, offers access to Tencent's email service.

SNS Site iPart CEO Discloses Statistics and Strategy

Taiwan-based social networking service (SNS) site iPart recorded revenue of more than $3 million in 2008 and expects the total to reach $10 million in 2009, reports Sina quoting iPart CEO Zhang Jiaming. Zhang said that virtual item sales and advertising each account for roughly 50% of iPart's 2008 total revenue, while virtual items made up 80% of the 2007 total. Advertising revenue is likely to grow by 300-500% year-on-year in 2009, said Zhang. iPart's Mainland site (ipart.cn) has recorded over 14 million members, 60% of whom are female, up from 10 million users in April.

iPart has become profitable and is targeting an A-shares or Hong Kong listing in two to three years, said Zhang. Zhang said the site may acquire companies and considered an acquisition of Beijing-based social networking site Kaixin001.com in March and April. iPart has spent the $8.5 million its received from a Singaporean investor in September 2007 on personnel, offices, promotions, advertising and partnerships, said Zhang.

Established in Taiwan in 2003, iPart entered the Mainland market in 2004 and has set up offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. The company has roughly 180 total employees.

Source:jlmpacificepoch.com

China Mobile Starts Closed Beta Testing of SNS

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) began open beta testing today of its SNS platform "139 Community". The site is tailored for China Mobile subscribers, and is currently accepting registration applications from Guangdong Mobile users.

In addition to basic SNS functionality, 139 Community also allows users to send SMS and MMS messages online and provides online data storage, SMS conversation log management, and a personal address book.

China Mobile's 139 Mailbox service has also been moved to the 139.com second-level domain mail.139.com.