Facing East
Web 2.0, Internet Marketing, E-commerce
31 October 2007
Facebook has registered a local web address in China in a move to fight off future copyright arguments, Reuters reports.
The social networking site now has the Facebook.cn address, which could also be used in preparation for a Chinese language version of the site.
Facebook has no current plans to host its site in Chinese and has already attracted 100,000 members to its English language China network, the agency reports.
Enterprising start-up businesses in China are imitating the most successful social networking sites.
A recent report in the Economist documented the country's skill in copying the format, and concluded: "All the big 'Web 2.0' sites - those that let people share information, collaborate and link up with friends - have many Chinese knockoffs."
Already Chinese companies are looking abroad hoping to collaborate with ‘foreign’ firms. Wealink, a Chinese site with 1.2 million users has had talks with LinkedIn, the site which it imitated.
There are approximately 160 million internet users in China making it the second largest online market in the world. According to business intelligence provider, China Knowledge, online advertising revenue is set to rise by 53 per cent this year.
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