:: online communities in China can link people together based on common interests. Sometimes, these interests are located online — gaming, net lit, online video, tech — but often times people are involved in offline pursuits that they wish to share with their netizen friends. Some communities / discussion forums are national in nature and connect people from across the country. Others are more locally-focused and serve as online outposts of a groups that meet frequently in the real world. Although each of the following activities takes place offline, practitioners meet online to plan events, share videos, seek help with techniques, or shoot the breeze with other people interested in the same thing.

parkour ::
Parkour and the art of free-running, which started in the 80s actually, has exploded in popularity worldwide over the past few years, and China is no exception. The Parkour and Free Running Training website offers background information on the sport as well as space for traceurs to share their experiences. These include photos of interesting moves and videos of stunts (here’s Guangzhou’s “city spanker” club). Some videos attempt to work parkour into a narrative, like the 20-minute “I’m not a solitary hero”  (我不是独行侠), the story of how one parkour team was formed. A Douban group for parkour enthusiasts recommends the Paoku.com.cn website. Individual local teams sometimes have their own websites. City Monkey, a Beijing-based team of traceurs and one of the forces behind Paoku.com.cn, keeps track of its activities on a website and a blog. The group’s updates are infrequent, but it has received a fair amount of local media coverage as parkour has entered the public consciousness over the past year. Other teams are listed on the LeParkour website, which includes groups in Wuhan (C-traceur) and Xi’an (Freefly). For more information (and lots of Parkour videos) see an earlier post I did on fifty 5.

biking ::
Biking has a huge online presence in China. Most online biking communities are BBS-style discussion forums, although a few sites, like Qixingquan, have attempted to build a Web2.0 SNS community out of bikers, to limited success. ChinaBike (车友论坛), whose full name is “China Bicycle Enthusiast Net,” is a typical BBS aimed at bicyclists. The most popular sub-boards are those devoted to road and mountain bikes, which mostly consists of technical issues, and a marketplace for second-hand bikes ( ). The site is quite active, garnering several thousand comments a day, and it has a huge list of links to a wealth of other cycling websites at the bottom of the home page. Many of those sites are local forums, and university clubs are particularly common. PKU has a bike club, the Cycling Association of Peking University, whose online presence accompanies an offline organization founded in 1995. The site exists to organize bike hikes, share information, and connect student bicyclists with each other. More generally, Qiche8 is a BBS aimed at college student bicyclists across the country, and has sub-forums for schools in various regions. Within the scope of bicycling, BMX (小轮车) is the focus of quite a few community forums. China BMX is one major clearinghouse for BMX-related information. showing off their members who have made the covers of BMX-related magazines. Nukebike is a general forum for BMX, street bike, and dirt bike exploits, but similar to parkour, biking is an activity pursued by local clubs across the country, many of whom have their own online presence. A BMX club in Wuhan keeps a blog on Blogbus which hosts some striking action photographs and multiple-exposure images of jumps. Enthusiasts often post videos of their skills to various video hosts. Here, Yang Mingkai (杨明凯), a twenty-something BMXer in Beijing, shows off to the sound of the Beastie Boys on a sidewalk, and in competition.

skateboarding ::
Kickerclub (ignore the unfortunate logo), is a bilingual website devoted to skateboarding exploits in China. According to the about page, Kickerclub was founded in 2001 by a skater from Qingdao who was studying in Xi’an at the time, and is now working in skateboard-related merchandising. The site features skateboard tutorials, products for sale, and videos of skateboarders in China and around the world. There’s an associated Douban group where members post photos of activities and skate-ups in various cities. The latest was a meet-up in Chengdu for World Skateboard Day on June 21. Another Douban group, Skate, provides a helpful bilingual list of skate lingo, which is fairly fluid, as the three renderings of “ollie” illustrates (翱骊, 豚跳, 带板腾空). China Skateboards is a clearinghouse for skateboard-related information and announcements. These include photos of events, such as recent meet-ups in Nanjing and Shijiazhuang. The website has a channel on Youku where it posts videos, mostly of foreign skateboarders, but occasionally of locals. SkateHere, a product-oriented skateboarding website, hosts blogs from some well-known names in the field. Along fashion lines, it has a tons of photos from the launch of Nike’s SB line of skateboard shoes; a promotional video of the shoes has been pretty big this year, and features Tiananmen and other recognizable Beijing locales.

dancing ::
Break dancing, called “street dancing” (街舞) and Pili wu (霹雳舞) in Chinese has a fairly large online presence. Breakdance China is an collaborative blog that aims to provide information to China’s breakdance enthusiasts. Blog posts are frequent – several per day – and include announcements of upcoming events, photos of recent events, videos of dancing, and complaints about “kids these days.” The website is also host to the Quanzhou Middle School Break Dance Hiphop forum, a community for “Ha.5 Club” breakdancers from Fujian. Breakdance China links to 52 Breaking, a BBS forum for breakdancing fans. The most active sub-board is devoted to teaching techniques. Techniques are also the predominant focus of the active Baidu Postbar on breakdancing, which at the time of writing claims 2,780 members and 55,759 topics. One classic post is instructional and uses videos that mix popular music videos and actual break dance (for example). The BBS Hiphop City, whose URL can be interpreted to mean “I want to dance, dance, dance!” is a forum for all kinds of hiphop dancing, divided by city. The website is inclusive of other interests associated with hiphop dancing and urban / street culture: it has sub-forums for graffiti, MCing, and DJing. Current top stories are mostly in memory of Michael Jackson. Latin dancing is another up-and-coming activity, but because it’s organized a little less organically than breakdancing, online communities are more oriented toward formal training: people posting to the Douban group are largely looking for instructors or training centers, and a lot of websites are hosted by studios rather than community or discussion forums hosted by groups of enthusiasts. There are abundant instructional resources on China’s video hosts (example).

rock climbing ::
China Outdoor Information Center (户外资料网), a widely used website for outdoor activities has extensive information on alternative sports, including climbing. The social networking site hosts groups ranging from mountain climbing to rock climbing, and includes photo albums of indoor and outdoor climbing experiences. China Climber, a Beijing-based forum aimed at a national audience (including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau), has a sub-board where members can share stories of their climbs. Many local climbing groups host their own websites. LS Climbing is a Shaanxi-based forum associated with the Xi’an Rock Climbing Fund, an organization devoted to developing destinations for rock climbers. The Xi’an version is inspired by a similar organization in Shanghai, which is affiliated with the Rock Lizard BBS. A Baidu Postbar on rock climbing has a fair amount of traffic and covers climbing walls as well as outdoor excursions. And of course no sport would be complete without photos of sexy models pretending to take part.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at 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.]

:: in last week’s Friday Five, I focused on China’s “Post 90″ generation on the Chinese Internet. This week, I’ve decided to take a look at the other end of the age spectrum – China’s oldsters.

China’s Internet population may be dominated by young people, but Chinese seniors have a space of their own online as well. In fact, Baidu.com, China’s leading local search engine, recently launched a special senior-oriented search option that features large text, links to handy reference information like weather and stocks, and a categorized directory of major online destinations that oldsters might find useful. As nice as it is, it’s still a wrapper around a normal browsing experience, and to find individual Web sites specifically targeted at the elderly demographic requires a bit more effort. To that end, I thought it fitting to dig around and take a closer look at the Senior 2.0 scene in China. Below is a selection of senior-oriented offerings on the Chinese Internet.

general ::
The focus of China50Plus is pretty self-evident. It’s a news and information portal for people getting on in years, with a fairly extensive blogging platform and other forum tools as well. China50Plus bloggers post photos, reflections on life, and cheesy animations. And a blog purportedly by 99-year-old math professor Xu Xianyu (徐献瑜) contained posts about his interests, which included poetry as well as math, until he announced he was headed for the hospital in a March post. An English language about page explains that the service is supported by the Gerontological Society of China. Lots of BBSs can be found that target oldsters, but many of them are very low-trafficked and limited to a small community of users. China Seniors Forum (中国老年社区) is a moderately-trafficked discussion forum. The most active sub-boards are Making Net Friends (网友之窗) for new member introductions, and Learning for Seniors (老有所学), where members share information about computer-related topics like Photoshop, Flash, and HTML. “Setting Sun” (夕阳) is a gentle euphemism for aging, so many websites targeted at the elderly will include that in their names. The Red Sunset Forum is a space for seniors to meet people and chat; the most popular sub-forum is a virtual Tea House whose topics include word games and dialect exchange.

services ::
OldKids (老小孩) has blogs and forums, but its main mission is to offer training in computers and the Internet to the elderly. The Web site has a directory of off-line training sessions in skills like WindowsXP (in Shanghai), and offers video courses on the same subject matter. OldKid’s archives also feature entertainment offerings like classic movies and games. Seniors, get ready to experience Super Mario! (well, Luigi’s Revenge). Other websites help seniors with more immediate concerns, like finding places to spend the rest of their years. Older99 is a directory of retirement communities and nursing homes, with a wide range of other categories of aging-related information. Health is another concern, and God of Longevity manages to provide wellness information relatively unscathed by the flood of dodgy ads for drugs and supplements that cover most other health websites. God of Longevity has sub-sites for illnesses, healthy living, emotional life, and friends-making.

nostalgia ::
The Zhiqing (educated youth) sent down to the countryside in the 60s are getting on in years, and there are a number of online forums for them to look back on their younger days. Beijing Zhiqing BBS is aimed at former zhiqing from Beijing and receives a few thousand posts a day. The most popular sub-boards currently are Yan’an, which connects people who spent time in northern Shaanxi province, and Mountains and Gardens, which organizes outings for members. There’s a similar BBS for Shanghai-based zhiqing, which is more art-oriented, and for zhiqing based in other major cities throughout the country. For participants in an earlier period of Chinese history, Love Old Soldiers is ostensibly a website for veterans of the anti-Japanese war, although current active members seem to be mostly younger people. One of the site’s missions is to provide stipends to elderly veterans in need of financial support, as in the case of 58th Division veteran Duan Wenzhou (段文周).

offline activities ::
The Jianchen Cup, an annual exercise competition for seniors, hosts an active BBS on its website. The Cup is co-organised by the Chinese Health Education Association and is sponsored by the Shenzhen health products company King Soldier (深圳市金士吉康复用品科技有限公司), which means a lot of the off-line activities promoted on the site are also in Shenzhen. The BBS, too, is mostly about activities in the local area, such as this post about a the Guanhai Tai dance group. According to rankings listed on the site, the top three interest groups at the moment are Food, Morning Exercise, and Social Issues. (More Jianchen Cup info on Baidu Baike.) Old Cadres Home (老干部之家) is associated with the print magazine of the same name, and provides forums and information, as well as travel planning, products, and outings. And like other age groups, seniors get together through QQ groups set up for organizing dancing and other activities (one for Guangzhou).

companionship ::
Seniors need love, too. Old People Love is a website for senior singles in search of their other half. Users can search by city and availability. Another match-making site In Search of a Spouse is fee-based: VIP members can upgrade to send messages and add friends for 200 yuan for six months or 300 yuan for one year. A thorough help section explains how to log in and register for the benefit of old people who don’t know how to use the Internet (and other information about sending and receiving messages and check private contact details). The Web site also features a BBS. Oldster (夕阳夜话) is a BBS targeted at gay seniors. A photo sub-board is the most popular forum on the site, but photos only show up for registered users. ChGay, a website aimed at a wider age range, has a section for seniors as well as a group for May-December romances.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at 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.]

:: an excellent documentary examining social media’s deconstruction / decentralization of institutions, decision-making, and organizations, and the impact the Internet is having (and potentially could have) on government, finance, collaboration / information sharing, and online / offline networking. Buy the DVD here (the video below is the full documentary). For more information, extra clips, and reviews, link here. To watch this documentary in other languages, link here. H/T Sean Leow. // AjS

:: given the vast appetite of Chinese netizens for video entertainment, online video, if done correctly, is an excellent vehicle for brands’ communications efforts. Funny, clever one-off and viral are always an option, but the possibilities are far greater than simply treating the online world as another platform for the same old same old (i.e. 30 second spots). Below is a snapshot of companies and brands successfully using online video in China to support their communications efforts; everything from viewer-determined webisodic series, subtle product placement, brand sponsored content, contests, voting, user generated advertorial content, C-suites interviews / commentary / updates on services, and, of course, magic!

brand-sponsored web series ::
Sofia’s Diary originated in Portugal as a webisodic soap opera, and later made the jump to broadcast television in the UK. The Chinese edition (苏菲日记) tells the story of Sufei, an 18-year-old girl from Beijing who’s living with her father and step-mother in Shanghai. The show is sponsored by Clinique (倩碧), whose products have a prominent placement in the show itself and in related online promotional materials. Sufei’s blog invites readers to “take a look at the Clinique products Sufei uses in the show.” Other brand sponsors include Sony (Sufei uses a Vaio laptop and other Sony digital devices throughout the show) and 51.com, which she uses in her job hunt. Audience interactivity is fostered in weekly polls where viewers vote for plot twists they want to see in upcoming episodes. The first season of 40 episodes concluded in March, but the Web site promises that a second season is in the works.

brand-produced web series ::
Lu Chen, a magician from Taiwan, was one of the breakout hits of this year’s Spring Festival Gala. He now endorses Nokia mobile phones, and the company recently released a series of branded videos featuring the star. In the “educational” videos in the series, Lu instructs observers in how he performs simple tricks (part I,  part II) involving Nokia phones. A street magic segment unites magic tricks with mobile phone capabilities, amazing and mystifying the audience. Then, in more straightforward advertisement / product presentation, Lu performs different forms of “magic”: he takes advantage of special features of the N(okia)-Gage phone to help his acquaintances with gaming, maps, and email. A flashy online campaign released by Johnnie Walker in 2007 includes a series of five connected shorts telling the story of a creative type who “keeps walking” through life in his attempts to become a screenwriter, accompanied by his friends and refreshing drinks of Black Label. The series has related graphic novel interpretations, games, and quizzes, and is still being promoted in the brand’s overall online communications efforts.

one-off / viral video ::
In September 2008, Lenovo rolled out an online promotional campaign for its S9/S10 Ideapad netbooks that included a cute mascot, a theme song, and a digital video short. The “Always Online” short tells a supernatural love story: A boy tells his girlfriend that she’s too dependent on him; she suspects he’s seeing someone else and breaks up with him. He says he’s “always online,” so she continues to seek his help through her instant messaging program. After she achieves independence and self-confidence, she finds out that he died of cancer, and that his spirit has been inhabiting a stuffed “Kuku bear” that he bought, allowing him to chat with her from the grave. Pop star JJ Lin sings the theme song “Always online” — all of which promotes the “always online” feature of this line of Ideapads. It’s a more successful viral effort than a previous Lenovo laptop promotional campaign, a ham-fisted attempt at “candid photos” of a pretty girl using a red Ideapad U110 laptop.

:: online marketing channels
Tudou has a sub-section for marketing, which hosts contests, games, product exhibitions, promotional activities, and dedicated brand channels for client companies. A typical example is a recently-launched video contest promoting Wahaha’s new beer-flavored tea drink Pierchashuang (啤儿茶爽). Contestants are encouraged to send in their own original commercials for Pierchashuang, which viewers can vote on. Ultimately, the ten most popular will be judged by the organizers of the game, and prizes awarded: a car, a netbook, or a RMB 500 “creative prize.” The competition just started on May 6th, so the entry page currently features TV ads for the drink. Original entries include a girl attempting to drain the bottle and a boy echoing the product slogan “Pierchashuang isn’t beer!” Ku6 has a User Generated Advertising (UGA) department which is involved in generating viral videos. An initial success was a short clip released in January 2009 that showed a young man losing a mobile phone out the door of a subway while he was playing with it. The actual phone wasn’t shown at all, but curious netizens tracked down the Sony Ericsson model that had the peculiar inertia-based game he was playing. A more obviously branded short is a new viral Chevrolet ad that pits the Transformer Bumblebee against a Citroen C4. The ad’s particularly interesting in how it refers back to a previous viral ad from 2007 in which a Citroen C4 transforms into a dancing robot.

corporate c-suite online video communications ::
Sohu was the official online news portal for the Beijing Olympics, and CEO Charles Zhang hosted a celebrity interview show, Sohu Beijing Report, in the run-up to the historic event. Zhang is something of an outsize celebrity himself, and his encounters with Jet Li, Fan Bingbing, Yao Ming, and other famous names had the effect of associating the interviews even more closely with the Sohu brand. Youku CEO Victor Ku releases the occasional video. He too did interviews for the Olympics, and this year did a special New Year’s greetings for the Year of the Ox . The official Youku channel has more of his videos, which range from statements about the video portal’s exclusive offerings to special “CEO vs. CEO” interviews.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at 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.]

:: netizens in China have a wealth of online choices for obtaining information about cars. Prospective buyers and auto enthusiasts alike can find news and reviews of the latest models on blogs and in special-interest BBS forums, and if they want to make a purchase, there are sites to help them find both new and used cars that suit their requirements. Once they’ve bought a car, they have ample space to discuss their car owning experiences or, should something go wrong, seek help and advice. And a number of brands have taken advantage of blogs and online games to increase their exposure among netizens.

cars on blogs ::
Moyan Qingfeng is an auto commentator associated with Sina’s Auto Channel. He blogs about new models and keeps an eye on industry trends. Recent posts have followed the decline of the mainland’s auto market, which he says is nothing to be surprised about. He’s also associated with Way of the Car, an auto community website that features BBS boards, blogs, and auto analysis. Li Xiang, founder of community website PCPop and car portal Autohome, keeps a blog that’s mostly about cars, although he does muse about entrepreneurship and other unrelated topics from time to time. Xiao Cheng is a Dandong-based auto commentator. His blog is mainly concerned with reviews of new models, and his posts are widely redistributed across the Internet. In blogging-related activities, Sina’s own blogging platform features an application called “I’m Car Crazy” that allows netizens to put up a widget on their blog that displays a car they’ve “purchased” through the system. New users are given a certain number of credits to start with, and they can accumulate credits by posting in Sina forums, answering surveys, or completing other tasks. With more credits, they can purchase better cars. The “Auto Mart” section contains real-world specifications of the different vehicles that are available for “purchase.” Once netizens have purchased a car, they can take part in online games like racing against their blog friends. Popular SNS app Kaixin has a similar game called “Parking Wars” (requires registration) that features lots of different car models.

general auto BBS discussion forums ::
There are lots of places to find information about cars online. All of the major web portals have auto channels featuring the latest news, ads, and pretty pictures, and a number of major standalone sties are devoted to car information. Autohome. One of the biggest auto-specific websites on the mainland. Has its own stable of reviewers and commentators, one of whom, Meng Qingjia, went along on a press tour of China’s Antarctic research station. His trip was sponsored by Nissan X-Trail.  PCAuto claims to be the second-largest auto-related portal on the mainland. One interesting feature, in addition to comprehensive BBS forum and blog offerings, is a fuel economy blog that aggregates netizen data to come up with the most fuel-efficient cars. XCar is another major portal with sub-forums for practically every (sometimes random) interest imaginable. The self-guided holiday sub-forum has over one hundred users, and is a popular venue for people to share experiences about their own travels to faraway places such as Kunming, Tibet and Xinjiang. Several threads are started each month and generate frequent replies. China’s auto-related websites include organic communities and small startups as well as major sites operated by large media companies: CBS Interactive runs the buying sites Cheshi and Go Car, as well as the XCar portal, by virtue of its 2008 acquisition of CNET Networks. PCAuto belongs to Pacific Online, which owns a network of special-interest websites.

making a purchase ::
Che168 is a forum designed to be a comprehensive buyers’ guide to the auto market. It’s part of a network of online buyers’ guides that includes IT website IT168 and has connections to Autohome and mainstream portal PCPop. A clever search function that lets netizens weight the importance of various traits (such as safety, efficiency, economy, brand, and power) on a sliding percentage scale. GoCar (购车网) is a no-frills car buying website. Front and center is a search box for country, make, price range, and style. There are sub-sites for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shandong, detailed information on a wide range of models, and tools for figuring out loan and payment numbers. Data comes  from a selection of online partners as well as relationships with offline dealers like Oriental Foundation International Auto Mall. The site is connected to XCar forums, so it does not host a local BBS. Cheshi (车市), which belongs to the same company, is more focused on information and buyers’ guidance, and features an active BBS which hosts sub-forums devoted to popular makes and models. The site also has a list of expert agents who are available to answer buyers’ questions. Judging from the response rankings, visitors to Cheshi are interested in new cars: the repair, rental, and second-hand experts have very few questions directed at them. Taotaocar (淘淘二手车网) is a website founded in 2007 to facilitate the buying and selling of used cars. It’s set up like an automotive version of the online auction house Taobao, and offers model- and price-based searching options and special sub-sections organized by location. Advertisements (or partner links) are from various used car dealers. Another technique for buying cars is group purchasing. Prospective buyers seek volume discounts by approaching car dealers as a group, and they frequently organize themselves using the Internet. Netizens find other interested purchasers on web forums, but the actual discussion mostly takes place off the web using tools like Tencent’s QQ messaging software (see this CIC narrative for details).

websites for car owners ::
Netizens who own cars have a wealth of online forums to choose from. Most comprehensive auto forum websites have sub-boards where owners of particular models can congregate; some of them also have sub-boards devoted to particular geographic regions. Independent sites cater to specialized interests. Pochezu (破车族), or “Jalopies,” is an auto forum aimed at existing car owners. Rather than focusing on the latest models, information on this site concerns auto maintenance and repair, tricks for keeping a car looking good, and directories of after-market services and destinations you may want to drive to. Car owners interested in tuning their vehicles can visit Modi-Auto, a community devoted to the art of improving car performance. Started in 2004 as a bare-bones BBS by tuning enthusiasts, it has grown into an archive of relevant news and information with an active discussion forum attached where newbies and experts can talk tuning. Another way car owners get together is through driving tours. Car Trips is a specialty forum devoted to organizing self-guided driving tours and sharing experiences and photos. Netizens discuss routes, lodging, and destinations, and sometimes arrange group excursions.

online branding / marketing ::
The Other Blog is a MINI-branded blog hosted on Sina. It features the latest ads for the Mini Cooper S standard and Clubman models surrounding blog posts related to design, art, and other trendy topics the brand wants to be associated with. Blog post contests are another way for brands to increase their exposure in the digital space. In 2008, Toyota held a contest for bloggers on Tencent’s QQ platform to promote its new Corolla model. Owners were asked to write about the joys of Corolla ownership or tell of their experiences with the car, with the winners receiving a GPS system, a netbook, a gas card, or other car- and travel-related prizes. In 2008, Anhui’s JAC Motors partnered with Sina to place its Rein SRV into a driving game. As part of the promotional campaign, net gamers competed in a series of elimination rounds with the ultimate winners getting the use of a Rein vehicle for one year, a laptop computer, or other high-tech prizes.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at 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.]

:: Chinese netizens have a plenty of options when it comes to spending money online, but their choices are more limited when it comes to managing their finances. Similarly, there’s tons of information about investment and the stock market, but not as much about other aspects of financial planning.

Here are a few different types of websites and services that Chinese netizens are using for wealth and personal finance management:

household budget websites ::
A large number of websites have sprung up in the past few years to help Chinese netizens manage their household finances. Zhangke (账客网) is a typical example. Its name is formed from the word zhang, “account,” and ke, a common suffix used in Chinese Web2.0-related terms. Together, the term means something like “accounster.” The URL means “I’ve tallied it!” The clean-and-simple site offers monthly plans for entering data via mobile phone, and it provides functionality for discussing consumer-related topics, posting expenditure diaries, and finding other consumers in your city. Caakee (财客在线) was founded in early 2006 and targets white-collar workers between the ages of 25 and 35. It has a large feature set, including the ability to handle stocks, funds, and credit cards, and to export all data in an Excel file for offline applications. Caakee founder Tian Keshan is a young entrepreneur who recently appeared on an Apprentice-like Shanghai TV show called No Free Lunch. My Money (网上理财记帐) features an extensive list of capabilities that includes rolling stock quote updates and foreign exchange accounting for 26 different currencies. It lists frequent system updates: in May it launched version 3, in September version 4, and in November version 4.5. There are far more of these sites than can easily be summed up here, but you can find twenty of them listed here on Parandroid, a blog devoted to lists of software and web technologies.

financial blog sites ::
Many investment and financial planning experts blog on hosts designed to bring together bloggers on financial topics. CNStock’s blog platform hosts wildly popular stock bloggers who have mirrors across all of the major blog providers as well as other writers who address less exciting financial issues. This is to be expected, according to a recent post by Tang Xuefeng, a financial consultant who blogs on CNStock and writes columns about personal finance for the financial channels of other portals. Tang notes, “China’s financial sector is mainly Investment right now, and Personal Finance is lacking. People chase headlong after profit and are unconcerned with rational, practical planning and management of risk, benefits, resources, and goals.” Caixun (财讯) is a financial portal associated with the Beijing-based Shihua International Financial Information (世华财讯). It’s a large, cleanly-designed site that provides news and analysis, as well as exclusive commentary from experts (mostly on investment and market-relate issues). A large personal finance section offers extensive archives of relevant background information, reports, and reviews of financial products on offer from China’s major banks. Associated BBS discussion forums and blogs fill out the community aspects of the site. As on other financial platforms, specific wealth-management topics are in the minority, but people are blogging about housing purchases, white collar savings, and strategies for managing taxes.

e-Commerce-related communities ::
Websites that facilitate online spending are also home to money-management and personal finance communities. Alipay, an online payment service run by e-Commerce giant Alibaba, has a community subsection that offers general-interest forums. It has two major sub-boards devoted to financial issues: an investment and personal finance board, which hosts discussions about financial planning, stocks, and family finances, and an economization board, devoted to exchanging techniques for saving money. Alipay itself has set up partnerships with other financial websites, including a number of the personal budget services found in #1 above.

online bank communities ::
Most of China’s major banks have websites that are one-way: they provide netizens with information but do not allow for much interaction beyond basic online banking services. Some have minimal forums set up to allow netizens to ask questions online, while a few go all out and host extensive BBS discussion forums that cover a broad range of financial topics. China Merchants Bank offers forums with content ranging from online banking issues, to currency markets and investment, to financial planning and insurance. ICBC has only a limited selection of forums, but it schedules live video chats on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Financial experts are online to discuss currency trends, financial planning, fund dynamics, and other related topics with interested netizens. The China Construction Bank website has a section featuring the products of online merchants, which allows netizens to reserve plane tickets, buy jewelry, and purchase online gaming vouchers through the bank.

widgets / tools ::
Online financial calculators are provided by a number of banks and financial websites. ICBC offers a set of tools for calculating loans, returns on stocks and bonds, and foreign exchange rates, among other data. Financial portal Hexun offers an impressive battery of tools for performing calculations related to credit estimates, period investment returns, insurance, major household purchases, and retirement income, as does Eastmoney. Widget platforms offer a variety of stock widgets that can be embedded into blogs and other web pages. Sohu’s Open Widget platform hosts an Eastmoney-branded stock widget that reports general market information for Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as allowing blog visitors to look up the activity of specific stocks. Another relatively popular (though unbranded) widget charts detailed stock info on a large graph. Bloggers who embed the widget can select a stock to track, and the widget will automatically update with near-live market activity and rolling averages.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at 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.]