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The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

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Re: The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

#11

Post by jcl »

coconutrandom wrote: post #2

That was a really good article Put another way: Sure the Chinese can learn a thing or two about original Web ideas from the Valley, but the Web 2.0 generation can learn a lot about monetization from China. and it goes to explain with an example with a Chinese version of match.com

Agreed. And while the article characterizes the matchmaking service as "a Chinese version of match.com", that doesn't really do it justice -- their methods are actually quite different, even if the end goal (finding a mate) is the same. In this respect, it's something like comparing eBay and Craigslist.

Re: The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

#12

Post by FooBarWidget »

amix wrote: post #8

I think author misses that the Chinese market isn't free and most of the western sites are blocked by the great Firewall. I think their market would look at lot differently if their market was free and anyone could compete on it.

Match.com isn't blocked.

And if I'm a Chinese (I am) in China visiting a western website the first thing I'd think is "OMG it's not in Chinese", after which I'd go look for a native version. Some sites do localization, but it's rarely done correctly. For example search results are still polluted with foreign information and some pages are only available in English.

Re: The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

#13

Post by pyre »

liuliu wrote: post #4
coconutrandom wrote: post #2

That was a really good article Put another way: Sure the Chinese can learn a thing or two about original Web ideas from the Valley, but the Web 2.0 generation can learn a lot about monetization from China. and it goes to explain with an example with a Chinese version of match.com

That's true. The virtual good actually made Tencent, the largest IM provider became the most profitable company in China. And few months ago, one of my friends still argued that online-casual game has no market in U.S. because "the market was dominated by game console". The first widely-adapted webgame invented in China (www.mop.com), the company behind renren.com(largest facebook.com copycat in China). Those randomn…

If you had a point I missed it or you need to reword what you said. It just reads like a bunch of information to me. This isn't a put-down, you seem to have a bunch of interesting information, but I'm not sure what you're getting at.

> The virtual good actually made Tencent, the largest IM provider became the most profitable company in China.

What 'virtual good?'

> And few months ago, one of my friends still argued that online-casual game has no market in U.S. because "the market was dominated by game console".

What does this have to do with the Chinese or innovation?

> The first widely-adapted webgame invented in China (www.mop.com), the company behind renren.com(largest facebook.com copycat in China).

What about these? You've listed them off, but are you relating these to the previous statement about 'online-casual games' having no market in the US? If so how does renren.com related to that? Are they the creators of mop.com? Even if this statement relates to the US having no market for casual online games, what point are you making? That the US is innovation-less because there are no popular/profitable online casual games?

> Those randomness (copycat vs. innovation) just amazed me how dynamic Chinese market is.

You didn't explain why the Chinese market is dynamic. Because of 'randomness?' How do you mean?

> There are too many innovations, but just too many are failed too early.

Too many innovative Chinese companies are failing before they 'make it big?'

Re: The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

#16

Post by Frazzydee »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #12
amix wrote: post #8

I think author misses that the Chinese market isn't free and most of the western sites are blocked by the great Firewall. I think their market would look at lot differently if their market was free and anyone could compete on it.

Match.com isn't blocked. And if I'm a Chinese (I am) in China visiting a western website the first thing I'd think is "OMG it's not in Chinese", after which I'd go look for a native version. Some sites do localization, but it's rarely done correctly. For example search results are still polluted with foreign information and some pages are only available in English.

Not saying that your points aren't valid, but you should know that I've found western sites generally load far slower than Chinese ones in China. I completely gave up trying to use facebook without turning off images.

Re: The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

#19

Post by nuggien »

amix wrote: post #8

I think author misses that the Chinese market isn't free and most of the western sites are blocked by the great Firewall. I think their market would look at lot differently if their market was free and anyone could compete on it.

Your comment is probably misinformed. But even if it was a free market and nothing was blocked, it's still unlikely a foreign company will win out over a local homegrown equivalent. Like google/baidu, or cyworld trying to take on the US market etc.

Re: The Chinese Internet: Why the “Copy Cats” Win

#20

Post by RevRal »

swernli wrote: post #7
joblessjunkie wrote: post #3

"men are universally attracted to women with a .7 hip-to-waist ratio"? I suspect that this ratio has been reported backwards.

The number is correct, the wording is backwards. Studies have shown that waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) for women considered attractive within their cultures hover around average of 0.7. Interestingly enough, variation in attractive frontal WHR across cultures dissapears when using circumference as a measurement; in that case it collapsed down pretty reliably to 0.7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist-hip_ratio

I clicked your link, and I have to say that their idea of a really attractive WHR is really spot on (the example at the top).

The last section is also very interesting. I'd like to see a study done on the people who find smaller hips more attractive, whether this correlates to less intelligence.

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