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Social networking gaining ground
By Wang Dabao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-11 13:53

Though the global economic slowdown curtailed spending by Chinese consumers in the real time world, it did not deter them from patronizing social networking websites.

Social networking gaining ground
Kaixin001 has seen its registered users suppassing 40 million.[China Daily/Du Lianqi]
Social networking gaining ground

With most of the foreign networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter blocked in the country after the Xinjiang riots in July, Chinese websites have been gaining ground and are vying with each other to boost market share in the country.

Xiaonei, China's largest social networking site similar to Facebook, said last month that it had changed its name to Renren to broaden its customer base beyond college students. The new name is also designed to help the website to be more inclusive, and reach more Internet users, said Chen Yizhou, CEO, Oak Pacific Interactive, which owns Xiaonei.com.

The name change plan came about shortly after Kaixin001, a social networking website popular among Chinese white collar workers, said its registered users have surpassed 40 million and it has made considerable revenue from online advertising.

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That made the young website, which was first launched last May, surpass 51.com to become the second biggest social networking website in China, according to research firm iResearch.

According to a report from research firm Netpop Research, Chinese broadband users above the age of 13, the main users of social networking websites, reached 286 million, nearly double that of the United State. The research firm predicted that the number of users would double over the next five years, despite the global economic slowdown.

Unlike the US, where over 35 percent of the Internet users are under 35, nearly three-fourth of Chinese online users are under 35, according to Netpop. It has also made social networking websites extremely popular in China, with online users reaching 338 million in the first half of the year, according to figures from CNNIC.

Sensing the opportunities, Sina.com, China's largest news portal website, recently launched beta trials of its micro blogging service. Like Twitter, Sina's service allows users to post short messages less than 140 Chinese characters, and people can follow other users to get updates. The service also allows users to send SMS or MMS to update messages after people set up the account on mobile phones.

Since its debut, Sina.com has invited many celebrities such as Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China, to use the service. Experts said Sina.com plans to utilize the chances to mark its presence in the social networking market.

According to a recent report from domestic research firm Dataa Consulting, Chinese social networking website users prefer applications like blogs, photo albums and online games. "Entertainment, rather than social networking, is still the most popular application in Chinese networking websites," said the research firm.

According to media reports, many Chinese social networking website users get addicted to online games so much so that access to these website have been blocked from many offices. The reports also said the addiction to online games defeats the purpose and reduces the long-term value of the social networking website.