The Straits Times (Singapore) has an interesting article the contrast between the popular global Social Networks and the local websites in China:
While the world goes gaga over Facebook, China’s netizens swear by Kaixin. Few outside China have heard of Youku, but few within have heard of YouTube.
It may be called the World Wide Web, but China’s netizens live in a parallel cyber universe with a complete distinct set of clone websites they have created and embraced.
The world pays with Paypal online, China uses Alipay. Millions chat online with ICQ, but Chinese prefer QQ.
Baidu, which copied Google’s clean-screen look, is the No. 1 search engine here, taking 60 per cent of the market. Just 25 per cent of Chinese netizens use Google, making China one of the few places on earth where the global behemoth is a loser.
A key reason for the failure of these global big names lies in their defeat in the word-of-mouth contest. Nine of out 10 new search engine users, for example, are recommended to use Baidu, according to Chinese media reports.
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Read the rest of the article here (from Singapore’s The Straits Times).
