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周五5 | 中国互联网上的最新热播视频 ::

September 11th, 2009

:: 大众对于病毒式传播的视频广告逐渐产生审美疲劳。尽管制作精良,

创意新颖的作品仍然收到良好效果,但对于那些试图操纵观众意图明显的广告,广大网民往往能一眼识破。

您可以通过优酷Buzz博客来更多了解近期的热门视频。Kaiser Kuo在这个博客上发表他对这些视频的评论。文章多兼具诙谐幽默与讽刺调侃。在最近这篇关于歌手曾秩可的文章中,作者表达了自己对曾的音乐才能的不屑。In2Marcom博客新推出的Eyes On Me栏目则汇总了当月的各个热播视频。

曾秩可 ::
继曾秩可(曾在此前的Friday 5报道过)在八月份在超级女声选秀节目中遭淘汰之后,这位“人气超女”依然频繁出现在各种网络视频中。新浪用户“替罪羊”与视频制作者“飞飞蛙”合作完成了由“替罪羊”模仿包括刘德华,崔健,费玉清在内的15名歌星演唱曾的成名曲“狮子座”的视频。另一个关于曾秩可的视频是由参加军训的上海交大新生们制作的,在视频中,男生们向女生演唱“狮子座”以及另外两首歌。曾最近被卷入一场“抄袭门”,她的“狮子座”被指抄袭台湾歌曲“天际”。在我们期待一部关于曾“抄袭门”的出色视频出现的时候(目前只有一段对比两首歌曲的视频),这一事件也引发了在众多论坛和博客上的讨论,其中有文章援引曾为自己所做的辩护:“发现世上另一个自己”。曾秩可的形象还被搬上了网友炮制的《变形金刚3:地球之战》上。在这个植入了大量“广告”的短片中,曾从外星入侵者手中拯救了地球。影片中的广告,多半是一种对好莱坞和中国电影制作,以及大量病毒式传播视频中此类现象的戏仿(更多与此主题相关内容) 。

雪铁龙广告 ::
继雪铁龙发布一系列变形金刚主题的广告之后,名为“C派变形金刚”的优酷用户再次发布了两个变形金刚主题的拼接影片。八月份的一个名为“C派集结登场”的视频是此前雪铁龙的变形金刚广告的重新剪接,其中包括一个滑冰机器人和一个舞蹈机器人(曾在此前的Friday 5中被报道过)的片段。九月初由另一个用户上传的一段视频也是一个名为《疯狂的赛车》的视频。影片中,由于雪铁龙车队的赛巴斯迪安.勒布长期稳坐WRC拉力赛冠军宝座,以至于其它车手都把自己的最高目标定在第二名。这段视频不算成功:除了在几家汽车论坛受到些许认可之外,大量网友认为这只是一个二流广告并追问雪铁龙为这个广告花了多少钱。一些网友甚至在观看视频后对雪铁龙品牌嗤之以鼻,尽管并无证据标明雪铁龙与该视频有任何关联。

流星雨中的植入广告 ::
在八月份湖南卫视版本播出其改编的台湾电视剧“流星花园”之后出现一片对产品植入的反对呼声。台版的流星花园改编自日本漫画花より男子(Hana Yori Dango),在2001年播出之后在亚洲电视观众中创出收视高潮。而大陆的湖南卫视也在此剧基础上推出自己的改编版本《一起去看流星雨》。原版剧中的四位被称为F4(漫画原作中Flower 4的缩写)的男主角被新版的H4所取代。但是“流星”粉丝们对这部新作并不买账,反称其为“山寨流星花园”。各大论坛中对该剧的批评比比皆是,其中观众有违不满的是大量直白露骨的广告植入。网友制作了一些视频来讽刺这一现象。其中一个热播的视频汇集了剧中数个最为恶俗的广告,包括一段对南京产的名爵3SW汽车冗长乏味的推介。而熟悉原版的观众来说,剧中出身显贵的富家公子居然会为一款售价仅10万左右的汽车而心动?豆瓣和其它网上论坛的用户都觉得这样的情节安排十分可笑。甚至有网友指出这些广告是对处于经济低迷时期的中国观众的不尊重。另外一个被传到游戏论坛的视频则选取了剧中一段关于网游《征途》的做作的对话。而此类植入广告似有愈演愈烈之势:广电总局最近出台一条规定:所有插播广告不得超过90秒,而湖南卫视对此的反映是它将会将更多的广告植入到节目当中。这极有可能导致网络视频在市场营销中扮演更大的角色。

现代汽车 ::
在将目光投向病毒式营销之后,现代汽车从上月起投放了数条网络视频。从八月底推出至今,一段发生在一个技术不甚高明的女司机和一个倒霉的交警之间的小插曲的视频被在大量国内社交网站以及国外中文网站上转载。视频利用了人们对于女性司机的固有认识,整个叙述过程中并未使用对话,而是大量运用肢体语言从而达到喜剧效果。在第二个视频中,一个粗心大意的司机试图一边驾驶,一边点烟,同时还要用手机打电话。第三段视频则是一个擅长漂移的车手和一位跑酷高手之间的角逐。这段视频在许多汽车论坛受到追捧,引发许多关于漂移,以及标配车能否有像视频中那样出色的表现。这些视频并不注重含蓄:现代的标志频繁在特写镜头中出现。尽管大多数网友觉得这些视频具有一定娱乐性,但对此类广告的疲劳也不可避免。关于女司机的那段视频在优酷网获得大量好评,而对粗心司机视频的好评数量稍稍多于恶评数量。而跑酷视频却得到大量的恶评,甚至有网友评论到:“什么垃圾片子,踩死”。

国庆 ::
中国的国家形象在庆祝中华人民共和国成立六十周年的视频得到了体现。对于阅兵的准备训练,武器装备,参阅部队的电视报道在网上很受欢迎。北京电视台的一段报道在上传三天后就获得1468413次播放和2482条评论。网友们喜欢在自己的评论中加入飞机坦克的图案;而这种现象在东方卫视的国庆阅兵报道中也可以看到。今年国庆的另一大亮点是献礼大片《建国大业》。这部电影的许多片花可以在优酷中看到,其中一个被包房923781次并受到455次评论。片中明星云集,包括章子怡,李连杰,张国立在内的影视大腕纷纷加盟。评论中即有对国家建设的盛赞,也有对盛典劳民伤财的担忧。而此前的由青岛理工大学一群魔兽爱好者创作的魔兽版国庆阅兵则在游戏场景中模拟了坦克和其它装甲车辆通过大量部队分列两侧的长安街的场景。负面评价多是围绕为国庆游行而进行的交通管制,以及被选中参加游行给自己带来的麻烦,但是绝大多数关于国庆的视频都是积极正面的。

// AjS

[Friday 5是我服务的爱德曼数码(中国)的一项产品。这里是全部Friday 5 的存档。 有意通过电子邮件订阅双语Friday 5者可通过以下地址向我发送邮件索取:adam 点 schokora 在 edelman 点 com。]

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events | a nice set, a dj slipmat design event ::

September 11th, 2009

:: Shanghai is the next stop for A Nice Set, a traveling exhibition of customized slipmats designed by leading artists from around the world. Presented by NeochaEDGE and Jellymon, A Nice Set | Shanghai will feature slipmat designs from international artists as well as the first showing of original slipmat designs from emerging Chinese artists. Further integrating the music + art theme, a set of Aerial7 headphones will receive a custom-design treatment by Chinese artists and displayed at the exhibition.

A Nice Set | Shanghai exhibition will open at 7:30 PM on September 12th at SOURCE’s gallery space, and run until September 28. Original slipmats, reproductions, IdN’s commemorative book, and custom-designed Aerial7 headphones will all be available for sale throughout the exhibition. // AjS

aniceset_all_artists

Exhibition Opening Party :: Sept 12, 2009, 19:30

Exhibition Dates :: Sept 12 – Sept 28, 2009

Location :: SOURCE (158 Xinle Road, Near Donghu Road)

Participating Artists ::

China

Raylei, B6, Tyakasha, Yan Wei, Nini Sum, Jellymon, Kidplastik, Chairman, Shinjil, 96k, Rubberpixy

International

Asif Mian, Ben Loiz & Carolina Chaves, Bob Kronbauer, Build, Carlos Rodriguez, David Ellis, Genevieve Gauckler, Gerry Villareal, Harmen Liemburg, Hanna Werning, Hort, Ian Wright, Ian “Swifty” Swift, Jeff Staple, Jeff Zimmermann, Jenni Kim, Jeremy Hollister, Jeremyville, Maki Kawakita, Marc Atlan, Ray Smith, Republic of Regina, Stephen Bliss, Judy Wellfare, Kai and Sunny, Kenn Sakurai, Kustaa Saksi, Luca Ionesco, Maceo Villareal, Stephan “Maze” Georges, Timothy Saccenti, Universal Everything, Value and Service, Yuko Shimizu and many more

What is a slipmat?

A slipmat is a circular piece of felt material that DJs use on turntables to manipulate a record.

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The Concept ::

Just as DJs sample the work of many musicians into the new mixes, visual artists tap into their own cultural surroundings, sampling the influences they have accumulated and integrate them into their work. Both the visual artist and the DJ can be seen as “selectors” who draw inspiration from their respective environments, as well as its trends and fads, with the finished product of a painting or a mix being their interpretation of the world around them.

First conceptualised by Jeremy Hollister of New York creative studio Plus et Plus and Jeff Staple of Staple Designs and The Reed Space, A Nice Set invites leading artists to customize a pair of blank slipmats with dimensions of the canvas as their only constraints.

The Artists ::

The selection of participating artists for A Nice Set is not based on any universal visual aesthetic, but rather on talent, uniqueness and a passion for music – in both the work and the lives of the chosen artists.

Since its debut in Hong Kong, A Nice Set has been on tour for the past three years, travelling from Tokyo to Spain, Paris, Australia and Singapore hitting Shanghai this September. In each city, a selection of local talent is chosen to be included in each exhibition alongside the original collective. The works of the local artists then travel to the next city of the tour, ever expanding global pool of customized designs.

Organizers ::

NeochaEDGE

NeochaEDGE is a full-service idea and execution house passionate about helping clients understand, engage, and co-create with Chinese creative communities, trendsetters, and youth culture opinion leaders.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

NeochaEDGE is a product of Neocha.com, an online community and social network that empowers Chinese creatives to promote their work, collaborate with other creatives, and engage with fans.

Jellymon

Jellymon / JMGS is a multi-discipline design studio that creates Artwork, Toys, Fashion, Lifestyle products, Branding, Creative Direction. Jellymon was set up by Lin Lin and Sam Jacobs. The pair met at Chelsea School of Art in 2002 and have been working together ever since. Jellymon is about art and products with a fun and thoughtful twist. JMGS works closely with brands and advertising agencies. The projects we work on are very wide ranging but most focus mainly on the Youth Market.

Sponsors ::

Aerial7

Aerial7 was founded in 2008 based on the idea that great sound can be combined with awesome, eye-catching design. Our headphones are influenced by our devotion to art, streetwear, action sports, and DJ culture. They deliver unsurpassed audio quality in models that are as much a statement of individualism as they are a practical necessity.

aerial7

Vedett

Vedett is a premium Belgian beer brand with a somewhat different attitude; taking itself not too serious (except when it comes to quality, then we’re damn serious!), a bit quirky, modest, not telling you what to do or how to behave.

a-nice-set-flyer1

a-nice-set-5a-nice-set-6a-nice-set-3a-nice-set-2a-nice-set-1a-nice-set-4

idn_book

Posted in NeochaEDGE, art, china, cool hunting, creativity | innovation, culture, design, events, neocha.com, shanghai, urban, youth | creative culture | Tags: 96k, , , , , , , , , , , jellymon, kidplastik, , , , , , , places, , pop culture, ray lei, , , , , , , ,  | 1 Comment »

an illustration from jamhippy ::

September 10th, 2009

:: for more from Jamhippy on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

jamhippy

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

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snaps | warrior sneakers in ho chi minh ::

September 9th, 2009

:: taken in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; a pedicab driver wearing Warrior (回力) sneakers.  // AjS

3821264404_207f09458f_b

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water brain, by ani7ime animation studio ::

September 9th, 2009

ani7ime-team:: see below for an intensely imaginative and creative 3D animation film titled Water Brain. The short was produced by a team of students at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA) that collectively form Ani7ime Animation Studio. Water Brain accurately and tragically depicts the incredible performance pressure Chinese school children face throughout adolescence from parents / teachers.

In the world of Water Brain, school-children’s brains are water. When overstressed, their brains boil and give off steam that serves as food for the schoolbag-shaped monsters (parents / teachers) “enslaving” them in energy factories (classrooms / bedrooms). I don’t want to spoil any of the details – just watch it. I’m certain you’ll love it.

ani7ime animation studioWater Brain was recently awarded the Best Graduation Film Award at GAFA and will be presented at SIGGRAPH 2009, an international animation and computer generated graphics exhibition.

If the below Vimeo video loads slowly in China, Water Brain is also available on Tudou and Youku. To download Water Brain, right-click here and select “save as.” We’ll be keeping an eye on Ani7ime Animation Studio, so watch this space.

For more from Ani7ime Animation Studio on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

Posted in NeochaEDGE, art, china, cool hunting, neocha.com, video, youth | creative culture | Tags: , , , , , , ,  | No Comments »

events | being and nothing ::

September 8th, 2009

image001

Posted in art, china, creativity | innovation, events, shanghai | Tags: , , , , , cindy ng sio leng, , , , shi zhiying,  | 3 Comments »

converse lovenoise documentary ::

September 8th, 2009

converse-lovenoise:: over the past year or so, Converse (China) has made a big push in China to align itself with local indie / creative culture, particularly the music scene. Last August, as part of its LoveNoise (爱噪音) tour, Converse sponsored two well-known Chinese indie rock bands ( and Queen Sea Big Shark) for a 6000 km, one-bus road trip that included concerts in five second-tier Chinese cities: Xi’an, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, and Nanjing (plus a free grand finale show at Mao Live House in Beijing).

Bravo to W+K Shanghai and Split Works for engineering and executing the effort. It’s proven itself to be the most successful example to-date of a big brand engaging the Chinese indie music community – the verdict is still out on Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign.

See below for a full-length documentary capturing the Converse LoveNoise tour. The film was directed by the Beijing filmmaker Liu Feng and features interviews with the bands and their fans, as well as appearances and performance footage of Echo Rush, Hualun, 48V, Self Party, and , among other Chinese indie bands. Enjoy.

For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

Posted in china, cool hunting, marketing | pr | advertising, music, video, youth | creative culture | Tags: 48v, , , , , , , , hualun, liu feng, lovenoise, , p.k. 14, queen sean big shark, self party,  | No Comments »

snaps | shanghai circuitry ::

September 7th, 2009

:: taken in Shanghai on Anfu Rd.  // AjS

IMG_0423

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a track from leto ::

September 7th, 2009

:: for more from Leto on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

d6

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

Posted in NeochaEDGE, china, cool hunting, music, neocha.com, youth | creative culture | Tags: , , , , , ,  | No Comments »

an illustration from garfield ::

September 6th, 2009

:: for more from Garfield on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

garfield-ioftd

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

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things well done | converse’s “it’s your turn” campaign ::

September 5th, 2009

converse logo“It’s Your Turn” (到你了) is what Converse (China) has aptly titled its latest campaign featuring “flagship” spokespeople, Queen Sea Big Shark – one of China’s better-known indie bands. The campaign crowd-sources not only lyrics for the band’s new song Let’s Play, but also extras for cameo appearances in the song’s music video.

Once again Converse, bravo, well done.

Our friends at W+K Shanghai also deserve a chest bump for their work on this campaign – they are Converse’s agency of record in China.

What do I like about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign? Find out just below this mad hot Queen Sea Big Shark band photo.

queen-sea-big-shark-band-photo

First, it’s leveraging web basics (social media, user-generated content, etc.) to co-create with, among other target-audiences, the Chinese creative community. I love the web and I love the Chinese creative community, using the former to get through to the latter makes me happy and is just plain smart, kudos!

converse-its-your-turn-campaign-1Second, it’s providing a Chinese indie band yet another platform of exposure, promotion, and “packaging;” and it’s doing it in a non-intrusive, non-corporate way. Converse is just playing a facilitator role to make it all happen – none of the hype is focused on the brand, it’s all about the band. This campaign is not only good for Queen Sea Big Shark’s prospects, but also for the healthy development indie music scene and creative community as a whole.

Third, whether Converse wants to admit it or not, it’s not just for the indie crowd in China, or anywhere really. It’s a massive brand with the majority of it’s consumers falling into the “mainstream” crowd. The efforts Converse is making to align itself with Chinese indie culture and the Chinese creative community does well to establish / accentuate the brand’s personality and distinguish it among competitors in the China market, but more importantly (to us anyway), it helps educate “the mainstream” (i.e. the 90%) about the indie / creative scene (i.e. the 10%). This is something the former desires and the latter of course welcomes, and in the end, the brand wins too. This kind of education / awareness raising is a great service that (in some ways, only) big commercial brands and mainstream media can provide both demographics. Involving a mass audience in an indie band’s creative process is a nice way to achieve this.

Fourth, related to the third reason, the offline auditions for music video cameos are being held in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Xian – all second tier cities (except Guangzhou). This is a smart move for Converse on many levels, but what I most like about it is that the brand is bringing indie / creative culture to new demographics, not just the tried and true 1st-tier markets of Beijing and Shanghai.

converse-its-your-turn-campaign-2Fifth, there is half compelling prize. It’s depressing how many of these user-generated content / co-creation efforts by big brands (most of which probably have significantly larger marketing budgets than Converse) are incentivized with lame awards. “It’s Your Turn” winners get an all-expense-paid 5-day trip for two to Beijing to attend Modern Sky’s MIDI Music Festival in October. Winners are also given a RMB 2000 shopping spree at a Converse store. Both of these things are in addition to the obvious – winners either having lyrics they wrote used in a Queen Sea Big Shark song (Let’s Play) or appearing in the band’s Let’s Play music video, both of which will be high-profile, nationally promoted pieces of content. (Hell, I’m thinking about participating.)

Last, the campaign simply works. It’s achieving exactly what Converse wants it to – pushing the brand’s image / traits / attributes further in the direction it wants to go.

I only have two small critiques:

First, I think the campaign could be amplified better. It has been live for two weeks and besides some banner ads on Douban.com and the official Converse China website, I haven’t really heard much else about it. (Hopefully this post helps get the word out further.) Connecting with influential bloggers / online communities and courting brand fans to spread the word would help give an already great idea more legs within the indie community, but more importantly, among mainstream audiences. And of course, tapping more mainstream channels (online and off) would help increase the reach of the campaign across multiple demographics / localities.

Second, although I think this “one-off” campaign is a great thing all around (as was the LoveNoise campaign), I would like to see Converse communicate more openly about long-term commitments and plans for the brand’s involvement in the Chinese indie music scene. This is something that Pepsi has done quite well (albeit only in words and on paper at this point) with its Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign and QMusic label.

I’m all for leading through action, which Converse has done admirably, but research we’ve done at NeochaEDGE has found that brands have much to gain from publicly stating their long-term commitments or plans to engage with the Chinese creative community and local indie culture.

To learn more about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign’s lyric-writing contest, link here; for more on the campaign’s “be an extra in the Let’s Play music video” contest, link here. See below for two videos introducing both elements of the campaign. For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here. For more from W+K on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

Posted in NeochaEDGE, china, creativity | innovation, digital | social media insights, internet | technology, marketing | pr | advertising, music, neocha.com, things well done, youth | creative culture | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  | No Comments »

an illustration from tequila ::

September 4th, 2009

:: for more from Tequila on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

tequila

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

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friday 5 | microblogging after the death of twitter & fanfou

September 4th, 2009

:: China’s Web 2.0 space is in constant flux. Companies rise and fall, and the ones that remain are forever adjusting their positioning, rolling out new services to compete in new sectors, and even changing their corporate identity altogether. And that’s without accounting for the hand of the government in all-things digital.

Below we take a look at a few of the new microblog and social networking services that have arisen in the wake of the Great Microblog Purge following the Urumqi riots in early July.

Sina microblogging ::
In late August, blogging behemoth Sina launched its own microblogging platform. Sina’s microblogging service shares a philosophy with its own blogging service, which recruited high-profile celebrities to attract interest from ordinary Internet users: the home page features a ticker-tape of well-known Sina bloggers and other celebrities who have started a Sina microblog. Sina is also known for its rankings, and it continues the practice for its microblog service. A list of the overall top-ten most-followed microbloggers is featured on the landing page, with former Google China Chief Kai-fu Lee (李开复), Phoenix TV journalist and noted blogger Rose Luqiu (闾丘露薇), and CCTV sports personality Huang Jianxiang (黄健翔), currently at the top, and a rankings page breaks things down further into top daily follows and most reposted. Although Sina’s service maintains the 140-character message limit that Twitter pioneered (and it comes with its own in-house URL shortener to assist), users can elect to “repost” (转发) other users’ updates and append an additional 140-character-long message. This serves the function of other microblogs’ @-quote feature (which Sina does not support). And instead of a Twitter-like single hash mark in front of a keyword to tie a message to a particular subject, Sina’s hashtag system wraps the keyword in hash marks (#keyword#). In addition, Sina’s service puts a comment thread under each update where other netizens can respond to a message without it being included in their own update stream. These comments are not easily accessible, so the additional feature in some ways makes the system less open and transparent than Twitter. Of course, Sina also offers other technical goodies like binding your account to major outside blog platforms for automatic updates when you make a new blog post, and the ability to post (and quote) images directly into the message stream.

Myspace.CN 9911 ::
9911 is a microblog developed for Myspace China (聚友). Its impact in China was limited compared to homegrown social networks, and after the departure of CEO and founder Luo Chuan (罗川) in September 2008, buzz about the site has been subdued. 9911 provides a standard slate of microblog offerings, the most interesting of which is a prominent button to attach a video clip to an update (other services usually support images only). Like Sina, 9911 has a stable of celebrity users, and in addition to a handful of pop stars, organizations such as the NBA and the Wall Street Journal have signed up, as well as editors of major newspapers (e.g. The Beijing News, Southern Weekly). One of the most famous users is Zeng Yike (曾轶可). Zeng is a 2009 Supergirl contestant who has already been knocked out but remains incredibly famous, and her account has 22,438 followers. It directs links to her MySpace music page. However, 9911 sometimes feels like a ghost town. Many of the most active users of other microblogs registered on the site and began posting, but they quickly high-tailed it back to Twitter sometime in August, leaving dormant accounts behind. Well-known blogger and freelance journalist Michael Anti doesn’t update much, and Southern Weekly journalist Pingke (平客) has gone, and Hecaitou (和菜头), a blogger well-known for his humorous commentary, merely reserved an ID but did not post any updates. Even the full-on celebs aren’t doing much with it: Actress Gigi Leung (梁咏琪) has been using MySpace for years, apparently, but updates at a rate of one post every two or three months.

Digu reborn ::
Digu was one of the Chinese microblogging services that was shut down in after the Urumqi riots. Its main page still claims that it is “closed for upgrades.” This is most likely a fiction, as the website has already been completely replaced by another microblog called Huotu (火兔), which means “fire rabbit.” In early August, Digu users received a notice that read in part, “All of your Digu history and friends list have been put onto Huotu.” Huotu support images, @-replies, and a variety of plug-ins. Its sidebar links to latest updates from a variety of celebrity Huotu users and a list of “interesting people of the day.” Huotu supports hashtags, and its sidebar currently holds a prominently-featured link to a page listing all updates that use the hash tag #60, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1. It’s part of a contest (winners receive a Nokia smart-phone) that requires posts be in the format: Image reflecting (social / standard of living) changes + text description + #60. Users have posted old wedding photos, scans of ration tickets, newspaper clippings, shots of modern-day construction, and snippets of memories from the past six decades. Huotu is associated with Dadi (打嘀), a service that binds into other SNS websites and allows users to coordinate their updates en masse through Dadi’s single interface.

China Mobile SNS ::
China Mobile is identified with the phone-number prefix 139, and its 139.com website, an email service and more recently an attempt at a blog host, has been reinvented as a social network, an online home for China Mobile users based around a “talk” theme. Registered users, known on the site as “talkers” (说客), use 139’s microblog service to “be listened to” or to “listen to others.” Guo Degang (郭德纲) is a heavily-promoted celebrity member, although the page might not actually be maintained by the superstar cross-talker himself. Becoming someone’s fan, or “listening to them,” is the equivalent of “following” someone on Twitter. Guo has accumulated 951 listeners. Pop diva Wen Lan (温岚) also has a page that shows her music and a welcome message at the beginning on the audio asking her fans at 139 to stay tuned to her updates. Some profile pages also support music players so the famous popstars featured on 139 (there seems to be only about five of them), can then upload their music. For example, Taiwan pop singer Kenji Wu (吴克群) has an active 139.com account that hosts press photos for his fans. Associated functions include a music channel which lets the user listen to what the other users are listening to, a game channel, and a “magic shell” (魔贝) system, which is virtual money that can be exchanged for presents, similar to other more well-known Chinese SNS sites. 139.com claims to already have tens of millions of users, drawn from China Mobile’s immense phone user base.

Bage.me and reaching Twitter through the great firewall of China ::
If the new services described above have you less than convinced to abandon Twitter all together, how can you continue to access your Twitter account? Sure, you can fire up your VPN or route your web browser through a proxy (see this earlier Friday 5), but that’s kind of a pain, and it’d be nice to have a seamless system that just worked without you having to think about it. Twitter (and many Chinese microblogs) make their services accessible through open APIs to third-party plug-ins – software you install that allows you to update your account and read messages through a separate application outside of your web-browser, or tools that tie into other Web 2.0 services for syndication, content remixing, etc. In some cases, plug-ins may be written in such a way that they avoid the mainland’s blocks on web traffic, or they may be expressly designed to vault the GFW. Bage (八哥) is a Twitter client (it also supports Zuosa) aimed at Chinese netizens who want to update their Twitter accounts from a standalone application without the hassle of a proxy. Post through the application to update your accounts on both microblog providers at the same time. There are other solutions if all you want to do is publish content on Twitter. Before Twitter was blocked, some of China’s microblog services sensed a desire for interoperability among users and offered hooks to a variety of other Web 2.0 sites, including Twitter. Although these direct links may no longer work, it is often possible to route a Chinese microblog through an unblocked third party and then to Twitter. John Pasden at Sinosplice has details. Even with open APIs, it takes motivated programmers to harness the system for everyday users, and if there’s not a critical mass of interested techies, you may not be able to link your preferred Chinese microblog to your Twitter account. Right now, for example, linking your 9911 account to Twitter is a fairly complicated process. Nevertheless, the block on Twitter and the suspension of other Chinese services have not put a stop to the exchange of snippets of information, ideas, and silly memes on microblogs.

// AjS
[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

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snaps | maoming rd. chai ::

August 30th, 2009

:: taken in Shanghai on Maoming Rd. near Nanjing West Rd.; a soon-to-be chai’d building.  // AjS

IMG_0273

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