They say that everything is made in China. If not, there would be something similar to it that is made in China. And even social networking sites have not escaped the Chinese invasion. The rest of the world may be engrossed with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, but Chinese people have their own sites to burrow themselves in. The coolest part is that they not only have one but several China Networking Sites!
If resorts are ranked from single A to triple A and hotels get a one star to five stars based on the economic status of its guests and visitors, the networking sites of China have the same economic hierarchy as well. Think of it as flying in coach or economy, business class and first class. The top social networking site in China for the so-called lower tiers is 51. Most of its users or members are from rural areas. The site exudes and prefers the image of functionality over elegance. There are a number of online games available, like the popular applications of Facebook, but are at best just tolerable applications, not really refined and definitely could not compete with the leading networking sites’ applications.
What is considered as the middle class, bourgeoisies or business class of social networking sites in China is Kaixin. A profile of its users or members shows that most of them are working white collar jobs, yuppies and the like. The games available in this site are addictive to office workers enduring endless days of routine paperwork. Planting crops in a game was such an enticing break time activity. It could be said that it is the birthplace of the popularly known social networking site game of Farmville.
Then of course, there is the first class of the social networking sites in China which is Renren. It initially started as a campus based networking site when it was still named Xiaonei, which literally translated to or meant “on campus”. The similarities with Facebook do not end there. It was said to be the official Chinese clone of the western site because of its similar color scheme, layout and even the logo. It started its popularity inside the elite schools of China and has not left that clique of people since then; hence most users are still part of the higher classes even after they have left school.
The cloning does not stop there. You will rarely see a Chinese micro-blogger using Twitter, what he would most likely be using is Weibo. And just like Renren, the similarities with its western counterpart are uncanny that you might think the two sites are from the same mother company.
If these social networking sites cannot demonstrate that China is not only an economic giant but can actually stand on its own, then nothing will.
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