:: meeting people online is not hard: online acquaintances can be made in general-interest BBS forums, through SNS websites, or over IM software. But finding love in these online relationships might be a little awkward, so a wide range of websites have sprung up to help Chinese netizens meet a special someone to spend the rest of their life with, or just to get together for a quick roll in the hay.

general match-making ::
Baihe is the premier online personals site in China. Founded in 2005, it claims to have reached 13 million registered members at the end of 2008. From its motto (“soul mates finding a happy marriage”) to the services it offers, Baihe is geared toward bringing people together for traditional marriages, not casual dating. The website provides a Soulmate tool that performs a personality quiz and tries to match users up with compatible mates. With its sizable membership, Baihe has large local sub-groups in cities across China so people can find possible matches close to them. Other matchmaking websites are job-specific. 91Fate is aimed at white-collar workers; the website specifies that members must have achieved at least a vocational college level of education. And at Central Meetup (央务鹊桥), the Chinese government has set up a website for single civil servants and party cadres. Aspiring members apply through the government and party employees committee and can then take part in special singles events organized by the website and related organizations. And Shanghai-registered gay portal BoySky has a personals section (阳光交友) that has profiles from men across the country, along with a BBS, chat rooms, and video chat services.

hook-ups ::
Some people may not be interested in long-term relationships. For them, there’s 9yiye (就一夜交友), whose name translates to “Friends for a night.” This matchmaking website is devoted to bringing people together for one-night stands. Newly-registered users are given 1,000 free credits, and the website encourages users to reveal their real personal information and participate in community-building activities by rewarding them with extra credits — 300 for uploading a personal, 40 for revealing a phone number, and 2 for posting a comment — which can be used toward typical SNS services like buying virtual gifts and sending phone messages. In terms of privacy protection,  the website allows users to send emails or text messages to others without revealing their addresses or phone numbers. Anticipating that one-night-stand registration could be used as a tool for harassment, 9yiye threatens to report people who fill in false information to the police. Currently, users are predominately male. There are countless other dodgy BBS forums that get thousands of comments a day in forums devoted to hookups. A random example is Avi4, which divides hookup requests by region and has other sub-forums for adult content and other, restricted boards for edgier stuff like partner-swapping and bestiality (how much of this is more than just for show remains unknown — entrance requires VIP status on the website). The site claims to be registered with the Ministry of Industry and Information in Guangzhou, but its registration number which isn’t in the database, and it’s hosted in the US. This and other sites like it (search Baidu for 一夜情论坛) form a part of the Chinese language Internet unwelcome by the authorities but that seems to satisfy a certain need on the part of netizens.

fetish ::
S&M site SMNei is an SNS aimed at people into S&M. Currently there are 25426 members who can join various interest groups, like “bondage and dripping wax” sex group, which are only open to members. Like other Facebook / Xiaonei knock-offs, SMNei profiles include a discussion board, a message board, a photo album, and functionality for users to seek other people who share their same S&M interests, such as seen in user Zuqiandai’s profile.

non-traditional relationships ::
Asexual Marriage (无性婚姻网) is probably the most well-known website devoted to bringing people together for marriages in which sex does not play a part. It’s been covered in the mainland media as well as in a 2006 Reuters article. The site mentions various reasons for which people may be seeking asexual marriages – no sex drive, a desire for purely platonic companionship, or for medical reasons – but judging from the articles posted on the front page as well as the links bar at the bottom, the website is largely geared toward homosexuals who are seeking a traditional marriage as demanded by heteronormative Chinese society.

video chat ::
Love65 (65经典社区) is a social network site that offers games, stories, and discussion groups but is mostly devoted to video chat. It’s fee-based, and features “dancing,” “KTV,” and “private chat”. A warning banner on video pages says that the platform is solely for making friends, and that members should not tempt video presenters to do anything obscene or pornographic. Similar restrictions appear on other mainstream video chat sites, such as Liaoliao (聊聊语音聊天网), particularly after anti-filth campaigns. Nonetheless, there are lots of dodgier sites, many of which seem to be outright scams, that promote sex chat services. 3ren.com, a platform for building special-interest SNS websites, hosts a recently-launched Naked Chatroom (裸聊社区) to connect people for sex chatting. However, judging from the QQ numbers that get exchanged on other BBS discussion forums, and screenshots that circulate on adult image websites, most naked chatting and cybering probably takes place outside the browser, in IM software applications.

// 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.]

:: sharing information on the Chinese Internet is no more complicated than simple cut-and-paste. Netizens who come across something that appeals to them often full-scale copy-and-paste it into a blog or BBS forum post (most of the time without attribution) and share it directly. And of course, friends / colleagues frequently just resort to sharing links / content via instant messaging or email. Yet more sophisticated and useful tools do exist to help Chinese netizens organize and share articles, Web pages, and all sorts of other online content on a larger / public scale. Known by the names “bookmarking” (书签) or “social bookmarking” (网摘, literally “web digest”), these systems provide netizens with a handy link or button that will submit the current page / piece of content to a personal or public index, and allow users to add tags to classify information in what’s known as a “folksonomy” (分众分类法). Although still occasionally standalone Web sites (like the well-known Delicious.com), these services are more commonly folded into other social networking Web sites, or have additional community-oriented functionality, as the list below demonstrates.

Digg clones ::
The Chinese Internet has given birth to a slew of Digg clones: Web sites whose users submit short descriptions of interesting Web content and then collectively vote the submissions up (“dig”) or down (“bury”). These have found varying degrees of success — it takes a critical mass of users to make the voting process interesting / valuable for the community, and many sites die off after failing to build up a viable community. A number of special-interest Digg clones have survived. Leitie (雷贴网) and Zkaoo are geared toward wacky, funny videos, and links. Netizens’ constant thirst for new ways to be amused have generated votes and comments on both these sites. Another problem faced by sites with user-generated content is spam: unscrupulous marketers can exploit the system to swamp genuinely interesting content with their crass advertising. Some sites are better at self-moderating than others. Digg-style voting has been put to more successful use in news sites, where votes determine how stories are ranked / placed on the page. Tech site CNBeta, for example, offers a “Dig view” on its front page that ranks and displays stories by popularity, and user comments are promoted to featured status through a similar voting process.

365key ::
365key was one of the earliest bookmarking and tagging systems in mainland China. The site is associated with the tech Web site Donews, and at the bottom of every Donews article (and on other sites that use the 365key system) users can click a link that says “Save this page on 365key” (收藏此页到365Key) to bookmark the page. For pages that aren’t 365key-enabled, users have the option of using a browser plug-in or a Javascript bookmarklet, or they can manually add the link. The site also provides a Digg-like system for voting up articles; the most “dug” links are featured on the front page of the site. 365key’s navigation bar has special categories for major online communities such as IT168, Mop, VeryCD, and CSDN Tech, which feature the latest and most popular links from those sites that have been bookmarked on 365key. A lot of other independent bookmarkers, such as Leshou, Quzhai (formerly at http://www.quzhai.com), and Shouker followed in 365key’s wake, but few made much of a long-term impression on the Chinese internet.

RSS oriented systems ::
Just as how Google Reader offers a “shared items” feature, many Chinese RSS readers allow their users to summarize, tag, share, and vote on items in their feeds. Zhuaxia, a popular feed reader, supports both bookmarking and recommending, and provides a variety of views for checking out what other users are interested in. The “popular articles” view  (热文) lists the highest-ranked recent posts (there’s also a separate chart for popular videos), and users can also look at the most popular articles from the past month or year (note: this is all done through Javascript, so it’s impossible to provide direct links). Xianguo, another web-based RSS reader, emphasizes the voting even more: its front page is dominated by a ranking of the current most popular articles, with a sidebar that features posts shared by popular users. Additional functions of these and other RSS applications were shared in an earlier 56minus1 post. Top-rated articles on both Zhuaxia and Xianguo have far more votes than standalone Digg-like sites, probably because their RSS functionality attracts more users than voting on its own.

social network sharing ::
One of the most popular applications on Chinese SNS Web sites is a function that allows users to syndicate jokes, photos, popular posts, videos, and other Web content to their friends. This functionality is known by various names. Xiaonei calls it “sharing.” A chain of shares from friend to friend will often give an interesting topic a huge amount of attention within a short period of time and spur conversation other places on the Internet. Some Xiaonei users have gained minor celebrity status by finding and distributing interesting content that captures the attention of tens of thousands of other Xiaonei users. Huluwa is an example: this user has 847 friends on Xiaonei itself, plus a group of fans on Douban. Kaixin001 provides a similar functionality through its “repost” function (转帖), which allows friends to share links and content within the Kaixin001 domain. Douban, an SNS based around culture and the arts, uses the term “recommend” for this functionality, and provides a handy bookmarklet allowing site members to add links to their personal Douban feed for sharing with friends.

in-house systems ::
Portals and search engines have their own bookmarking tools. QQ’s bookmark service (QQ书签) integrates the standard link+description+tags format with its social network, including its wildly-popular instant message platform. Bookmarks can be collected through the QQ browser toolbar, other browser plugins and scripts, or through code users insert into the HTML of their own Web sites, and then they can be uploaded into the QQ IM application for use outside the Web browser. The front page of QQ’s bookmarks Web site lists popular links, many of which have been bookmarked by thousands of people. Baidu’s “search saver” tool (搜藏) allows users to build up their own index of bookmarked, tagged pages. Bookmarks can be either public or private; public bookmarks are aggregated into a tagged archive and shared among other Baidu users. Links to Sina’s Vivi still shows up on lots of pages, but that bookmarking system appears to have given up the ghost in 2006 or so — tags no longer work and groups have long since gone dormant. In its place is a system integrated with Sina’s blog service; Sina bloggers can click on a “save” (收藏) link at the bottom of a blog post to put them into a “favorites” list that is viewable to any visitor to their own blog.

// 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.]

:: how are companies and brands connecting with target audiences on Chinese social networking sites (SNS)? What has worked in China and what hasn’t?

Over the past few years, brand presence on Chinese SNS has largely been limited to passive (and really annoying) advertising and the occasional branded widget (see LG’s mobile phone widget on Sohu as an example, or read more about branded widgets in this 56minus1 post), but recently, several brands have pursued more creative and interactive ways to reach SNS users, upping the level of user participation and brand-consumer interactivity. These efforts range from curated BBS discussion forums to interactive contests within the confines of a particular SNS (such as a recent Chow Tai Fook-sponsored contest on QQ geared around a Valentine’s Day theme), to even more innovative offerings that connect virtual branded products with their real world counterparts.

Compared to other Internet markets, brand efforts on local Chinese SNS are still in an embryonic stage, however. A good number of Chinese SNS sites don’t have much of a brand presence or engagement in their games and widgets / applications at all, even when the user base seems primed for it. For example, one popular application on the generic, youth-oriented 360quan.com SNS has users playing the part of a McDonald’s cashier who has to serve an increasingly impatient crowd of customers, but it doesn’t appear to have any official McDonald’s involvement whatsoever (and it uses traditional characters, so it’s probably not even aimed at the mainland). A missed opportunity, perhaps? Other SNS may have been ahead of their time. HiPiHi, a Chinese virtual world similar to Second Life, features the heavily-promoted presence of IBM, which built a virtual conference center in the 3D environment. But perhaps because of technological limitations, interest surrounding brand involvement in virtual worlds seems to have ebbed, especially in China.

At any rate, Chinese SNS are ripe with opportunities for (reasonably) meaningful brand involvement. Below are five current examples of brands engaging and interacting with users on Chinese SNS:

magnum on Kaixin001.com ::
Magnum ice cream bars play a central role in a suite of games on the popular Kaixin001 social networking site. The “Special Treatment” (非常礼遇, shortened to the risque 非礼, which means to feel someone up) application involves codes printed on Magnum bars that can be exchanged for in-game credits (in the form of virtual ice-cream bars), which then enable users to take advantage of mini-apps like “going to work in a sedan chair,” “flying a fighter plane,” and “bathing in a hot spring.” Users take advantage of these mini-apps with their circle of friends on the website. What’s hosted on Kaixin001 is part of a larger campaign designed by Magnum in concert with the Poco.cn SNS. The contest for April has users accumulating virtual ice cream for a chance to win their own private Magnum party in Shanghai. New stages will be introduced in the coming months. See here for earlier 56minus1 post about MAGNUM.

iCoke on 51.com ::
CocaCola offers an application on 51.com that digitally inserts users into a boisterous Coke ad. Users choose a head shot, align it and tweak the coloring (screen shot), and then watch the resulting video (screen shot). The application is hosted through iCoke.cn, but it is fully integrated with 51.com’s user pages: users can choose a head-shot out of their 51.com photo album, and their activity is automatically recorded in their 51.com diary with the resulting video embedded into their user page. The game is part of Coke’s official BBS on 51.com (screen shot), which also features top-level forums related to advertising, music videos, polls, sports events, and various online activities. Users who invite their friends to join up (through April 19) have a chance to win real-world prizes like iPods, t-shirts, and notebook computers. The statistics about the group are kind of strange (like most metrics about the Chinese internet) as they claims over a million members but only 477,000 views, hmmm, but the top BBS posts have thousands of views and hundreds of replies.

Apple on Xiaonei.com ::
The Apple Store has a presence on Xiaonei in the form of a branded BBS forum and associated features. The BBS, called “Apple Institute” (苹果学院) (screen shot), has a few managed sub-boards in addition to a general discussion forum. There’s a section that provides info on Wifi hotspots in Beijing and Shanghai (two locations in Shanghai and three in Beijing so far, screen shot). Trendy young people using their iPods in real-world situations are displayed in the “iPod Spotter” section (screen shot). And the Diary section carries the latest Apple news. The page has seen more than 260,000 visits. Xiaonei users who apply to be friends of the Apple Institute (1782 so far) receive an Apple-themed virtual gift, such as an iMac icon. The Institute’s “members” are various Apple products, each of which has its own member page (the iPod Shuffle, for example, screen shot). Throughout 2008, the Apple Institute ran a promotion where virtual points accumulated by Xiaonei users could be exchanged for coupons good for products purchased at the Apple store, and a number of iPods were given out as prizes. Xiaonei also has an Apple Store user (Apple零售店), a “special friend” of the Apple Institute (screen shot), which mainly serves as a platform to allow users to post questions which are answered by other Apple enthusiasts.

Lenovo on Kaixin001.com ::
Kaixin001 offers a game in which users design their ideal virtual house. Lenovo launched a sponsored competition in March to judge the best-designed loft. The group currently has 14,465 “fans” (screen shot). Participants download the Loft template, design their loft, and then enter the result in one of three galleries (screen shot): Most stylish, most luxuriant, and most bewildering. All entries have to include the Lenovo A600 model all-in-one computer. The associated BBS elaborates on contest rules, and has lively discussion among members, who share designs and ideas or show off their entries. “Innovation” is emphasized as part of the design prompts, tying in to Lenovo’s brand message. In addition, contest entrants are competing to win Lenovo computers: the designer of the most popular loft will be awarded Lenovo’s new C305 model, while top finishers in the three categories get Lenovo-branded USB drives. Honorable mentions get a Kaixin001 virtual Beetle.

Adidas on Xiaonei.com ::
Sports brand Adidas has a heavy presence in the “Basketball Superstar” (篮球巨星) game on Xiaonei (screenshot). Players pit their fantasy team against missions, teamwork building exercises, and in PK (head to head) matches against teams run by other Xiaonei users. They use the virtual cash they win to get kitted out in Adidas clothing and shoes (screen shot). Game play is focused on setting up a team of “brothers” (friends from Xiaonei) and accumulating scores and other “brothers.” There are pages where you can train your brothers and, for a substantial amount of virtual cash, train existing basketball stars such as Chauncey Billups (比卢普斯) and Gilbert Arenas (阿里纳斯). PK matches are between players themselves in the game on the basis of their rankings, rather than according to actual real-world stats. The better your equipment, the more skilled your players become. You can also purchase virtual money by recharging your Xiaonei account by Paypal or credit card. The game’s BBS (screen shot) claims 123,990 group members, and many of the posts concern inviting “brothers” to join the game on their side.

// 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.]

:: Kaixin001.com, the wildly popular Chinese social networking site, appears to have opened up its platform to full-on branded campaigns and mini-sites! Brands have always had a presence on Kaixin001 as part of the site’s casual games / applications (Parking Wars, Buy a House, Send a Gift, Buy / Sell Friends, etc.) but the site seems to have upped the anti with the release of a new game / application yesterday called “Special Treatment” (非常礼遇), which is presented almost entirely as a branded Magnum (Unilever product) ice cream-branded effort, see below:

I won’t get into the specifics of the game, but in short, it revolves around publicly “teasing” your friends on the site and a resulting individual ranking among all participants. The higher your rank, the more opportunities you get to tease your friends and the more ways you get to do it. All pretty straight forward and very much done-before stuff, but, what’s interesting is 1) how boldly with game / application is presented as Magnum-branded within the Kaixin001 ecosystem, and 2) that success in the game is linked to offline purchases of Magnum ice cream bars (novel!). Gaming codes can be found on the sticks of Magnum bars and redeemed directly on the site or via mobile phone for more “teasing” opportunities / methods, etc. I can’t recall seeing anything like this on other Chinese social networking sites; definitely a first for Kaixin011. See below:

As the campaign just came out, it’s too early to know if and how it will be successful, or if it will lead to more brands opening up shop within Kaixin001. But, it’s worth keeping an eye on as another way brands are trying to engage with target audiences online in China.

In the meantime, what I want to know is if the Kaixin001 team created the application and approached Magnum for brand involvement, or was it the other way around? If the latter, who’s behind the campaign for Magnum, does anyone know? I’m curious about the costs involved for Magnum, thoughts? It’s also interesting to note that the offline purchase element of the game seems to only be offered in Beijing and Shanghai – that seems like a massively missed opportunity, but I can understand the possible logistics issues involved.  // AJS

[UPDATE: I've learned from Kaixin001 directly that the campaign at this stage is just an experiment and that the site is not openly cooperating with brands on this scale, not yet anyway. They want to see users' reaction first, then they may consider similar brand campaigns in the future. If the campaign goes over well with users, I can imagine Kaixin001 charging huge amounts of money for brands to do this kind fo stuff inside it's domain: some of the priciest real estate online in China.]

:: first there was 51.com…

…then there was Xiaonei.com…

…followed by Xiaonei001.com…

…and then came was Kaixin001.com…

…followed by Kaixin.com…

…then Bukaixin…

…and remarkably, then came Shangxin001.com…

…any guesses on what’s next? Shangxin.com? Saoxing001.com? Fenqing001?

// AjS