Friendless future for China's SNS innovators
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However, the promising enterprise soon faltered due to lack of financing for extra servers and broadband. He was forced to sell the company to venture capitalist Joe Chen at a dirt-cheap price. Chen later received $430 million funding from Softbank of Japan, and the website, named renren.com now, is waiting for an IPO.
Wang's twitter venture fanfou.com emerged just six months after the birth of Twitter in 2007 and grew to be the leading microblog site in China in two years. But it didn't hit the jackpot either.
This time, the website was closed because of government regulations. Now microblog services are thriving in China, but the momentum has been gained by other Internet tycoons including Sina.
If Zuckerberg had been born in China, would he have been able to make the same thing happen? There was once a time for the lone hero in China's Internet sector. Charles Zhang (Chaoyang), Pony Ma (Huateng) and Jack Ma (Yun) may be forever iconized and imitated. But that era might be gone for good.
Today, China's Internet industry is dominated by a few oligarchs, who monopolize investment. The news that Pony Ma's Tencent is considering developing its own SNS probably chilled many other smaller competitors.
Facebook's progress in China will be interesting to watch. But the innovation and funding that produced the site in the first place are unlikely to emerge domestically.
Chinese entrepreneurs who try to emulate Zuckerberg in China could wind up friendless.
The author is a student at the Hong Kong International School. viewpoint@globaltimes.com.cn
