chinese microblogging platforms ::
:: microblogs in Chinese are called 叨客 (pronounced ”dao ke”), a combination of the characters for “chatter” and “blog.” Chinese microblogging providers arose in the wake of the (the original microblogging platform) initial popularity, and some of them adhere quite closely to the Twitter user experience – from external appearances, like the homepage / profile layouts, to internal functionality, like using @username to reply to another user’s post, limiting posts to 140 characters, and providing support for SMS updating and one or more instant messaging services (typically QQ and MSN). However, Chinese microblogging platforms are yet to be supported by any clients (e.g. Twitterific, Tweet Deack, Twirl, etc.). If you know of any clients, please leave a comment.
Twitter itself is the choice of China’s more internationally-oriented digerati: (a) because they were early adopters, before the Chinese clones got off the ground, and (b) because there’s little interoperability among all of the different choices, so users tend to join services where there are already conversations they want to follow.
Included below is a “top 5″ review (in no particular order) of Chinese miroblogging platforms:
Tencent’s entry into the microblog game leverages its vast QQ instant messenger user base to make it one of the most popular domestic Twitter clones. QQ users gain the ability to publish snippets of text through their browser, by updating their QQ signature, or by sending a text message from their mobile phone.
Fanfou’s open API interface allows 3rd party developers to create applications on top of the sites basic functionality. Interesting examples include Gongfan, which overlays comments onto a GoogleMap of China, and Doufan, which inserts a button on Douban user pages to report their activity in their Fanfou stream.
Despite its German URL, this company is actually based in Xuzhou. Jiwaide also features a GoogleMap mashup and an open API for 3rd party developer applications. The site’s off-the-shelf functionality is among the richest of China’s Twitter clones, featuring a front-pag e search box, and a wide array of widgets for most of the popular blog platforms.
“What are you doing?” asks the name of the site, an apt description of what people use microblogs for. Zuosa has native support for including an image in each post, and offers support for video and multimedia links.
5) douban broadcast | 豆瓣广播
Miniblogs are also built in to other specialty social network sites. Douban, a book, music, and movie-oriented SNS, has a “broadcast” feature which reports any actions the user takes (updating their reading list, adding a friend, listening to a new song, etc); users can also write up their own mini-posts to include in the feed.
These are just a few of the many microblogging platforms in China; a more extensive list (without annotations) is available on the Web 2.0 reviews / news site THWS, which shows 27 Twitter-clones and 17 Twitter-like Web sites in China. (The THWS post is from 2007, its likely that some of these sites are no longer functioning.)
// AjS
October 29th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
[...] Original post by 56minus1 :: [...]
October 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am
[...] just saw this handy post on Adam Schokora’s 56minus1.com blog. Adam gives quick intros to five Chinese microblogging [...]
October 30th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Great post Adam.
October 30th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Chinese Microblogging Platforms | 56minus1.com…
A review of China’s top 5 microblogging platforms….
October 31st, 2008 at 5:43 am
[...] 56minus1 ::chinese microblogging platforms some Twitter-type microblogging platforms in Chinese – via Kaiser Kuo (tags: microblogging China Twitter ) [...]
November 1st, 2008 at 7:55 pm
[...] doing my research on this, I found this very interesting post which gives you a short overview over the top 5 most popular Twitter-like clones in China. Check it [...]
November 10th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] 我刚看见一篇Adam Schokora在56minus1.com博客上发表的文章。Adam简单介绍了中国五家提供微博客服务的公司，它们是滔滔、叽歪的、饭否、做啥，还有一个我不太熟悉的豆瓣广播。看看Twitter在中国的复制品结果到底如何。我承认我不是上述任何一家网站的用户，我已经在Twitter上关注了很多的国内技术狂人，看来似乎没有使用其他微博客的必要了。 [...]
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
[...] A new post at Adam Schokora’s 56minus1 has a great rundown of China’s various microblogging … [...]
November 28th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Jiwai.de can’t seem to handle ASCII or English. Somehow forgets spaces between English words and there is no tech support to respond to inquiries about this…
December 6th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
http://fanfou.com has been forgotten…
December 6th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Excelent post. Here it is another interesting list of chinese sites.
http://www.guillembaches.com/sitios-de-microblogging-en-china/
Let’s countinue our exciting journey into the depths of microblogging services.
February 20th, 2010 at 2:43 am
Microblogs are now being referred to as “scarves” (围脖).
There’s some more up-to-date info on EWC at http://www.east-west-connect.com/microblogs/chinese-microblog-roundup (Feb 2010).