Unless you are using a VPN, you will not be able to access Facebook in China. With over 160 million users (Analysys International, Beijing), meet RenRen, the first social network in China.
Interface
RenRen’s interface is very similar to that of Facebook, but it has some innovative options that a lot of users appreciate over Facebook. For example, you can know which users visited your page or change the “skin” of the website.
Users
The majority of RenRen users are students, between 18 and 24 year olds. According to Alexa, females who are in the age range 18-24, have no children, are college educated and browse this site from school visit RenRen more frequently. About 93% of visitors to the site come from China where it has attained a traffic rank of 16.
Games
This is RenRen’s strongest point: because of the openness of its platform, games on RenRen are very popular. In November 2010, the website unveiled social gaming as one of its first priorities, with the development of the game RenRen Party. RenRen Party will make you a DJ in a party. The virtual meets reality, as users will be able to invite their friends and celebrities to their party.
This new focus on social gaming can be seen in RenRen’s latest advertising campaign, where you can spot animated animals, vegetables and furniture.
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Future
Even though Renren is heavily monitored (the government can remove any post or comments made), its popularity keeps growing. Its future looks very promising as it is planning an IPO in the US this year. Moreover, the buzz around RenRen has increased since it has unveiled its plans for 2011. The social network will not only concentrate on social gaming but also on location-based service, information aggregation (with the development of “Likes”) and entertainment (a music app will be integrated to RenRen). Finally, a new version of Public pages will be designed.
Stay tuned to see how your business can benefit from RenRen in the next couple of articles!
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