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Find the latest news and developments in China’s prospering social media landscape!

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Soso Launches StreetView Maps in China, Looks Like Google StreetView (EN)

Tencent owned search engine, Soso.com, has just launched their own version of streetview maps in three locations: Shenzhen (where Tencent is based), Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and other mountain regions of Tibet. Other cities will be gradually launched soon but it is unfortunate, Beijing is not yet live. The fact that Soso released StreetView earlier than Baidu is quite impressive.

What the Future Looks Like for Chinese LBS? (EN)

Ever since Foursquare made an overnight sensation at SXSW (South by Southwest) in last March in Austin, Texas, its siblings emerged upon the scene quickly in both U.S. and China with more or less similar features – check into where you are to announce your whereabouts. If Facebook is all about who am I, Twitter is all about what I’m talking about, then LBS service like Foursquare is trying to tell people where am I.

China: The Dragon of Mobile APPs (CN)

China is becoming one of the fast developing economics with 0.95 billion mobile users. From Jan- Oct 2011, the increase rate of Chinese applied dialogue is 870%. Within the graphics, we can see that the share of applied dialogue in China is increasing rapidly.
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Find the latest news and developments in China’s prospering social media landscape!

WHAT'S HOT?

New Weibo Games Stats Reveal How Sina Cracked Social Gaming (EN)
New stats reveal the astonishing and meteoric rise of Sina’s Weibo service from a simple, Twitter-like microblogging platform, to being a Facebook-rivaling online gaming powerhouse. Since Sina Weibo has launched its gaming portal in July this year – along with a virtual currency called the weibi – it now claims to have nearly 10 percent of its total amount of users (now up to 250 million) as active social gamers. Some facts: 22 million Weibo Games active users, 1 million new users in 7 days with greatest Weibo game, highest game revenue in one single day: 500,000 RMB (US$78,800).

China Overtakes America To Become Largest Smartphone Market (EN)
There has been a lot of predictions about when China will become the world’s biggest economy, some say it will achieve this within a short five years. But already today, China has become the largest smartphone market in the world by volume. Deliveries of smart phones to operators and retailers in China grew 58% in the third quarter from the previous quarter to 24 million units. That surpassed 23 million units delivered to the U.S. market, down 7% from the previous quarter, according to the report.

Why China’s Coolest Blogger Doesn’t Use Microblogs (EN)
Han Han might be China’s biggest celebrity blogger which is a pretty impressive title for an infrequently-updated traditional blog to have in the microblog age. It helps, of course, that Han is young, handsome, drives a race car, and has cultivated a rebellious political image while so far managing to keep himself out of jail. In a recent post on his blog, Han Han also addressed why he hasn’t jumped into microblogging despite his domination of traditional blogging and his millions of followers. What’s keeping him off the Weibo wave?
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Find the latest news and developments in China’s prospering social media landscape!

WHAT’S HOT?

China's Internet Firms Vow To Tighten Regulation Of Web (EN)
China's top IT firms have pledged to step up the regulation of their services as government authorities have intensified calls to control the development of the nation's Internet. Repre-sentatives from 39 companies made the pledge during a government sponsored meeting last week. The public declaration comes as the authorities have tightened control of online social media sites, going as far to detain Internet users who have allegedly fabricated rumors. Au-thorities have said they want to promote the "healthy development", but experts have said Chinese officials are in fact worried that the nation's Twitter-like social networking sites are becoming platforms to criticize the government.

China Surpasses 100 Mio. 3G Users (CN)
In September 2011, China surpassed 100 million 3G users, with the domestic 3G development hitting a massive growth stage. It will be expected that the number of 3G users will exceed 130 mio. by the end of this year. With the rapid increase of users and the market, the percentage of mobile Internet usage also increased to 65.5%.

Sina Weibo Hits 250 Million Registered Users And Plans Spin-Off (EN)
Sina Weibo, China’s top microblog, is approaching the next stage of evolution. The site now reached over 250 million registered users with 90 million daily posts by October 2011. Moreo-ver, Sina Weibo is very likely to spin-off as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sina Corp, with four divisions. Two are focusing on the obvious route of social ads and marketing campaigns, the other two on local e-commerce. Sina’s top management believes the platform can become a destination for users to shop for daily consumer needs.

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