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.

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.

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.

Sohu Nears SNS Product, Sougou Includes Baidu, Google Results

Sohu (Nasdaq:SOHU) has almost finished testing its social networking service (SNS) product but would not specify the product's release date, reports ChinaByte quoting the company's public relations department. Sohu has opened up the search rights of its search engine Sogou.com to include results from Baidu (Nasdaq:BIDU), Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) and other engines, said the report.

Sohu CEO Charles Zhang said in early January that the company planned to release an independent SNS product after China's Spring Festival (January 25 - February 1).

source:jlmpacificepoch.com/

Rumor: Sohu to Expand into SNS Market

Chinese Internet firm Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) is rumored to be preparing to enter the social networking service (SNS) business with a new product scheduled to be released soon. Sohu Blogs has also recently stated that it will abandon its policy of accepting only search engine crawls from its own Sogou search engine, and has once again begun to accept crawls from Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Google. A Sohu spokesperson said that the previous policy of refusing other search engine crawls was mainly to protect user privacy.

source:marbridgeconsulting.com

China Yahoo to E-Commercialize Koubei

Alibaba Group's daily life information website Yahoo Koubei (koubei.com) and social networking service Yahoo Guanxi will be "e-commercialized" in 2009 and eventually integrated into Alibaba's e-commerce system, reports qq.com quoting China Yahoo Public Relations Director Wang Tong. China Yahoo designated its life and email services and Yahoo Guanxi as its key businesses in an annual meeting, reports Sina quoting a company insider. The company established a sales team of more than 60 employees to generate profit from e-commerce in life services, and all China Yahoo resources will be put towards life services in 2009, said the insider.

China Yahoo currently has nearly 700 employees, including nearly 200 for Koubei, but only 20 maintain and update China Yahoo content, said the Sina report quoting Wang. Search and blog services will not be emphasized in the future, and China Yahoo will not spend more money on search traffic, said Wang. China Yahoo has stopped providing some download and upload functions for its online photo service and plans to shut down its new community platform on February 28 due to business restructuring.