SMWHK Day 2: Navigating China Social Media Space

I just came back from Hong Kong, attending 1 day of Social Media Week which originated in the US and being brought down to Asia for the first time. One of the event I co-organize is China Social Media which I have to say generated a lot of interest. Aside from highlight of growth potential, people were also asking if any of China major player of SNS like Renren or Sina would go International, so far their reply is that they still have a lot of ground and room to cover within China.  People were also asking in regards to censorship issue, upcoming trends and also Weibo as a mass communication tool in China.

Dr. Gang Lu the moderator posted one overview of the presentation from Meg Lee - General Manager of Sina Hong Kong on "Weibo Is the Mass Communication Platform Beyond the Media". One of the media partner - Smoothweb did a live broadcast via Facebook, I'm hoping it will be available at a later date for offline viewing (will keep you posted on this one when I have the link).

All and all Social Media Week Hong Kong is a groundbreaking success in getting people more involved whether it is for marketer or for community.

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Renren New Features

There you have it folks, China largest social networking sites Renren with 120 million people and growing has just announced their latest features:
- 赞 "Zan" or LIKE buttons for external sites.
- Mobile location based service + deals.
- All new public page (although I haven't been able to create any page, hopefully this feature will be released to the public soon).

See more details here at Campaign Asia.
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Renren Merge with Kaixin

In an effort to gain more followers, Renren (120 million users) has recently announced full feature integrations between its competitors Kaixin (75 million users).

You can see their latest announcement here. I'm wondering if there is something in the future for Renren to fully purchase Kaixin.
Here is one interesting fact, if you want to establish a business page or public page it is free in Kaixin, however their contract stipulates that it is only exclusive to them and that no similar page can appear in other SNS namely their competition Renren.

The new integration features:
- More games.
- Easily switch between Kaixin and Renren personal account.
- Integrated IM chat app.
- Friends watch list, so you can easily see their latest updates.
- Last but not least, is their love matching space.

@Facebook, food for thought, integration with both Kaixin and Renren?

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