Still BBS: China SNS Development Report 2009

iResearch along with China’s popular Bulletin Board System developer Comsenz (developer of Discusz!) together launched a report on 2009 China’s Social Networking Sites (SNS) development. After reading the summary of the report (Chinese), though I doubt the methodology, I think it reveals the very unique feature, one essential question that I’ve been wondering, why BBS still plays an irrevocable role in SNS in China.

The Methodology: The report takes both user survey and industry interview approach for data. For the user survey part, the company displays survey link on 45 targeted websites and 324 smaller size SNS sites from July to August in 2009, asking users to fill in the survey voluntarily, ended up with 7462 samples. From the summary part, it did not analyze who took the survey, which raises the question if it has fair amount of diverse samples to illustrate the real situation. Therefore, when the reports says over 13.8% of people spend over 8 hours on BBS sites and 11.2% of people reply more than 15 posts every day, I tend to think that those who answer the survey are more likely to be heavy BBS users. With these findings, this report defines SNS as a BBS centered platform (threaded discussions), with functions such as announcements, group discussion, networking and value-added services.

Figure 1.0 How often do you reply a post everyday? 11.2% say they reply 15 posts everyday and 12.8% say between 10-15.

The findings: As a commercial report, the research goes to discuss how to effectively use BBS for viral marketing, branding and e-commerce in China market, etc. Currently, however, most SNS websites admit that advertising is still the major revenue. It could be the reason that forces BBS centered SNS system to embrace other services, like games, virtual goods, micro-blog in order to get various revenue sources.

Figure 2.0 2008-2009 China SNS Revenue Sources


One major finding of the reports is that these BBS centered SNS have the tendency to be more social: 53.3％ users saying they are using other social networking functions of the BBS, 30% say not yet but would like to try and only 10% are indifferent to new functions.

Actually, I think BBS should not be categorized as SNS if SNS are used for sites like Facebook, Twitter or RenRen (Chinese version of Facebook among university students, literally mean everybody), Kaixin (Facebook among white collar, literally mean happy). It probably is the same share culture, but for some reason that I have not figured out, the sharing concept is different in BBS context than in SNS context. Popular BBS system like Tianya.cn or Maopu cant nor be SNS, so does smaller specific BBS sites; and Kaixin, RenRen still need the links from these sites for content.

Then goes back to the essential question in the beginning, why BBS culture is so dominant, not only in China. Is it a cultural thing? That people would like to join an organized community and set the ranks, gain reputations and exchange opinions anonymously. Or is it a technical thing that it is just easy to use? Or, it is a GFW thing that people have no other option so BBS is a relatively safe harbor for information exchange (still some unfortunate guys were caught by Internet police for their posts). If I had sorted this question, I would have write a paper about it. I think it will be an interesting study to recognize the indispensable role of BBS in China's Internet culture.

For the report: Chinese English (China Internet Watch Blog)

Google Music US v Google Music China

Google lunched official music search Discover Music at the end of October 2009, which claims to give more accurate search results of songs as well as providing direct streaming link from content partners, including MySpace, LaLa, Pandora, etc. The ultimate goal is inevitably to gain traffic by the search syndication and share commission fees by redirecting users to buy songs. Especially, if certain promotional content were placed in the search results as this article suggests, this service is more like a marketing tool for music labels and music websites.

Actually, it is not Google’s first step in music search; Google China has already launched Music service to China mainland users (mainland China IP only) in March 2009. As we all know, Google China has a different motto than “don’t be evil” in order to accommodate to China market, the music service is also completely different from elsewhere due to the unique Internet policy and Internet economy.

Google China Music is partnered with a start-up Internet music service company Top100-CN, whose investors includes Chinese NBA player Yao Ming, to provide free music streaming and music download. This company negotiates the copyright with major music labels, including EMI China, Sony Music, Warner Music, Rock Records and Tape, Taihe Rye Music, etc and provides streaming and download for users totally free, though with DRM protection. The business model is almost completely relying on advertising support and it will share the ad revenue with contracted labels. Sohu reports that after 7 months of launch, the company’s revenue reached approximately $3.7 million, with a 29% market share (Baidu is still the dominant player in music search/download market with a 61% share), and the company is still expecting more advertisers in the coming months. For Google, the situation might be better. At least, it increases music search traffic and sells advertising on these music pages without worrying about copyright and content source.

Though the company’s business is staggering, it seems the only way to do music business in a place where no one buys intellectual property. It is like a myth in china market: almost all global brands, especially luxury brands and urban life style brands/products see the emerging needs and markets in China, only cultural products see the market but can not penetrate it.The difference in Goolge US and China music service reveals the weakness of China Internet economy due to lacking intellectual property awareness. It once again reiterates the question where's digital economy in China (except online game).