Talk given at SXSW in March 2010 on "Social Media in China".

1. Social Media in China: Different Than You Think
Benjamin Joffe, CEO | Plus Eight Star Ltd. | SXSW, Austin, 2010.04

2. Introduction

3. Benjamin Joffe
本杰明 벤자민 ベンジャミン
5 years 1 year 4 years

4. • Plus Eight Star
– “Innovation Arbitrage”
– Best practices from Asia’s Internet
and mobile scenes
• Cmune
– 3D social games
– Paradise Paintball, first “social shooter”
on Facebook, MySpace, Apple.com
• Mobile Monday Beijing
– Monthly forum for mobile professionals

5. www.facebook.com/paradisepaintball

6. Are We So Different?

7. Common Assumptions
1. Social media in China? Isn’t it all censored?
2. China is all about copy
3. Chinese users are very different from US users
4. What happens in China stays in China

8. Demographics & Users
• Young
– 70% of Internet users in China < 30 y.o.
– Urban white collars (have PC)
– University students
– Many women!
• Average income
– Avg. salary 500 USD / month

9. Conclusions
Are we so Different?

10. Online Games & SNS

11. Key Numbers
• Users
– Tencent 1B+ (485M active)
– Qzone 310M users
– RenRen 200M (50M also mobile)
– Kaixin001 75M
– 51.com 160M (38M MAU)
• Multiple accounts!

12. SOCIAL NETWORKS
APPLICATION PLATFORM
VIRTUAL
GOODS
ONLINE
GAMES
MOBILE

13. ONLINE + SOCIAL GAMES
ONLINE + SOCIAL GAMES

14. China’s Virtual Goods Market Estimate for 2009
5 Billion Dollars!
(5 times USA!)

15. Tencent
• Revenue: >1.5bln USD
– (3 times Facebook)
– 90% from digital goods
• (35% from games)
– 10% from ads
• Net margin: 40%

16. China Full of Happy Farmers!
• First farm game was made
in China!
– by company 5 Minutes
– “Because there are lots of
farmers there”
– Inspired by Japanese game
• Zynga copied shamelessly
… and now everyone thinks
Zynga was first

17. This is a seen as
a dating game

18. Innovations

19. 5C of Chinese Innovation
“On the shoulders of giants”
1. Copy
2. Combination
3. Competition
“Survival of the fittest”
4. Constraints
5. China

20. Will it blend?

21. What do we
want online?

22. Zhenai | Match.com Reengineering

23. Looking more closely
Zhenai.com vs. Match.com
• “On the shoulders of giants”
– Started as Match.com
– Raised capital
– Business model issue
• “Each new user costs us
money!”
• Develop new model
– 350 people call center
– VIP service
– Metrics & analysis

24. Lihua | Food Delivery by IM

25. BabyTree | SNS for Parents

26. P1 | SNS for the Affluent Class
• Innovative recruitment (shopping malls)
• Innovative revenue models

27. Thanks!
More about “Innovation Arbitrage”
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
+81 | Japan
benjamin0123 +82 | Korea
+86 | China
http://twitter.com/plus8star
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe + Added Value
* High quality
www.slideshare.net/plus8star