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See the original image at venturebeat.com —

Xiaonei, the Facebook of China, raises $430M — better as FB

venturebeat.com — Xiaonei, the company that likes to call itself the “Facebook of China” has raised a whopping $430 million from financial backers, VentureBeat has learned from the company’s investors. The backing gives it a larger financial warchest than Facebook itself, and sets the scene for a showdown with the American company. Facebook has just started to get s

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  • treelovinhippie, on 05/02/2008, -4/+26OK, if you're given $430M... design something other than the Facebook look (it's not that great anyway).
    • piratearggghhh, on 05/02/2008, -3/+4What? Invest in R&D instead of bootlegging and pocketing the cash? They don't believe in those crazy Western ideals that threatens to poison their way of living.
      • huszar02, on 05/02/2008, -4/+0You mean like how they poisoned our toys? Fair is fair.
    • quomen, on 05/02/2008, -1/+3Flacebook?
    • Chirp08, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Yeah man, flashy image heavy sites like myspace are the way to go. The point of the site is social networking, its about function and simplicity. If you look at the screen and at how many things you can actually access from any one page you will realize that site is brilliantly designed for its purpose.
    • iOsiris, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1A lot of Chinese imitation sites become to Chinese people 'legit' I bet because they actually become seen to the public before the real ones. So as the real ones get to the market, the imitation ones become 'established'. Although Facebook supports Chinese Writing, the site itself doesn't have a native Chinese UI which might draw people to a site like this instead. However, both cases they still need users for it to be anything.
  • kidwithshirt, on 05/02/2008, -8/+4***** YOU DONUTS ARE AWESOME!
    • quomen, on 05/02/2008, -2/+1Hmm..You had your first sexual experience with one ay?
  • Gonasadude, on 05/02/2008, -3/+8QUICK! Let's all switch social networking sites again!
    • mxmj, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Now can friend all of my friends in China ... Oh, wait..
  • ayeroxor, on 05/02/2008, -1/+21better as? What the hell is wrong with submitters lately?
    • SirPopper, on 05/02/2008, -5/+1Hey sorry but the headline was too long so I must remove funded!
      • n0va, on 05/02/2008, -1/+8That made as much sense the grand total of zero plus zero. In other words, none.
      • gogog0, on 05/02/2008, -1/+4...
        • Terminaltor, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2you mean like you ripped off printing and gun powder.
          "western ideals" sound as credible as collateral damage,...all is fair in life
    • quomen, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4NEWSFLASH: There are idiots in this world.
    • Clad, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2He's speaking Engrish.
    • jjustice, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1"Lately?" Get used to it :-) I've seen " Will Ferrell s' " before. That's right. Will Ferrell space S apostrophe.
  • Jams, on 05/02/2008, -3/+14I don't trust my private information with Facebook let alone some Chinese company!
    • danconia, on 05/02/2008, -1/+11"Trust" + "Chinese Government" = Does Not Compute
  • groovechamp30, on 05/02/2008, -3/+24The Chinese like copying stuff don't they? It looks identical to Facebook...
    • johnnyb3, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2If you think that's bad, wait till you see the German ripoff:
      http://www.studivz.net/
      • groovechamp30, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4and that sold for 100 million euros...
      • danconia, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2I think I just might have to switch my Entrepreneurship classes into language classes... who needs new ideas when you can just steal old ones and re-translate them? Africa is about due for a Facebook too, right?
        • groovechamp30, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1The market isn't really as lucrative, they don't even have broadband in most parts of Africa.
      • scarlet85, on 05/02/2008, -4/+6That German one's not worse than the blatant Chinese ripoff though, what are you talking about "If you think that's bad...".

        Chinese are copycat scum.
        • jakobmakob, on 05/02/2008, -1/+5Dunno why you're getting buried, you're right.
    • idavidtang, on 05/02/2008, -0/+7Well.. we did copy their past ideas like gun powder and noodles, I guess it's their turn now.
      • groovechamp30, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1We also used to burn witches at the stake, die from scurvy and use leeches to cure illness, but times move on.

        The modern world has developed intellectual property and copyright to allow businesses to innovate and profit from that investment, the Chinese just rip everything off and copy other people's ideas, it kind of messes it up for everyone.
  • KishKiai, on 05/02/2008, -5/+0Internets...
    FAIL.
  • fLUx1337, on 05/02/2008, -6/+1Inaccurate.....

    Xiaonei's OWNERS have raised $430m.

    i.e. it would be like saying Flickr raised $430m, when really it was Yahoo!
  • StuTheMeatMan, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2Anyone else sign up?
  • Adam420, on 05/02/2008, -10/+4who cares about china
    • danconia, on 05/02/2008, -2/+1Hmmm... idiots maybe? Even if you don't think they're causing trouble in some way then you have to acknowledge their impact on our economy, namely lowering the CPI for most Americans.
    • vicaya, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4yeah, who cares, they have only slightly more internet users than US anyway, so far.
  • jjive, on 05/02/2008, -5/+10Wow, even a murderous government likes to socialize.
    • danconia, on 05/02/2008, -0/+6The two go hand-in-hand. Let's not pretend like they don't come in that pair...
    • quomen, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2There probably is a huge user commune..ity.
  • BaNZ, on 05/02/2008, -1/+7I thought it was facebook in chinese.... guess there is still no copyright in China.
  • AbhishekGoyal, on 05/02/2008, -3/+1How long will they continue with all this Nazism ... This is murderous.
  • ctf2006, on 05/02/2008, -5/+5The name Xiaonei probably translates to something like "Rip off of some successful American company"
    • poidh, on 05/02/2008, -3/+2Or "we'll kill you if you mention Tibet/Falun Gong/Tiananmen Square/free expression/etc".
    • clokwise, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2"Little Milk" ? WTF?
    • neko, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2No, 小内 xiao3 nei4 translates literally to something like "small inside". I don't know what the colloquial translation would be.
      • 88e88, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2It's not 小 but 校 and the whole name roughly translates to "on campus" :)
    • 88e88, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1It roughly translates to "on campus" :)
  • Ryan0617, on 05/02/2008, -3/+2Well knowing the chinese they will copy the website, maybe with a lead-colour look.
  • zspeed78, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2How is that more money than facebook, didnt facebook just sell a small portion to microsoft giving it a valuation of billions?
  • Zecchetti, on 05/02/2008, -2/+1Ok, so its a new startup. But what do they need $430m for?
  • huszar02, on 05/02/2008, -2/+1Living in China must be like living in the clearance section of a Dollar Tree every single day. Knockoffs and cheapo products galore. Also, less food.
  • chris9902, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4I is better as posting?
  • danconia, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1Bigger "financial warchest"? That's debatable. Microsoft's bid for a piece of Facebook put the value at somewhere around $14 Billion so let's not jump to conclusions here. Zucherburg is essentially the world's youngest billionaire.
  • solid12345, on 05/02/2008, -3/+2Why is it everyone on the site looks the same to me?
  • dojonz, on 05/02/2008, -1/+3Social-networking for socialists.
  • Flashman, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1$430m would buy a LOT of Chinese coding power.
  • xrisnothing, on 05/02/2008, -6/+5Dear China,
    Create something on your own, please. Your entire economy seems to be based upon cheap bootleg versions of everything, that and poisoning children with lead paint.
    • xrisnothing, on 05/02/2008, -3/+2Oh and selling the bodies of executed prisoners to be plasticized
      I want to like you guys. Kung Pao chicken is tasty and that's a damn fine wall you've got there.
    • scarlet85, on 05/02/2008, -2/+3Their ancient history may be grand and all, and that's all that they're proud of now but they have absolutely nothing to be proud of from this generation or the last. I don't know why they have to act so proud when basically they're all crooks who pollute the planet, defy intellectual property copyright laws and wouldn't know what human rights are if it smacked them on the head.
    • gfnw, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1Pop quiz: How many of the items in your immediate vicinity were manufactured in China? I placing a bet somewhere between "lots" and "most".
  • MaheshNayak, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2Read this article its very funny. Indian bike PULSAR was copied by a Chinese Company and renamed Gulsar.
    http://digg.com/world_news/Chinese_copy_of_Bajaj_P ...
  • Labskaus, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Now it is payback-time! Let the chinese industry copy the technical patents, and while that the chinese internet will be flooded with copycats by european and american founders.... amazong.cn, ebayfu.cn.... ;-)
  • VandyB, on 05/02/2008, -1/+0Wonder is they just took the Facebook source code and completely ripped it,
    or started completely again and made it the same?
  • Dreath, on 05/02/2008, -1/+0You would think that with 430 million dollars, they could design a new interface.

    ...Maybe
  • algo, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1given all the copyright issues against facebook it's a nice irony that somebody has got $400 million for copying mark.
  • cbeach, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1If I was to rip off an American invention here in Britain I would undoubtedly be breaking a law. How is it that China constantly gets away with ripping off Western ideas and innovations yet never seems to suffer repercussions?
    • sonycam, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2Because the government doesn't care that much. They care enough to prove to Western governments that they're 'trying to stop it' but at the end of the day, they care more about their economy.
    • DarkLaughingMan, on 05/02/2008, -0/+0Because.

      a) there's not much Western governments can do about it
      b) what sonycam said, their government doesn't care so much
      c) their country is to big to efficiently stop copyright infringement
      d) everyone else ripped off chinese inventions early on anyway (seems like that's the key to getting ahead). Take a person's invention, copy it, and find a way to improve it.

      Now whether the modern Chinese copies are even making it better..that remains to be seen. Though for facebook that wouldn't be hard. Just put it back the way it was before, don't allow people to add applications.
  • toonwalk, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Time to start learning mandarin
  • agimat, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Why do they need so much money when they'll just copy everything anyway?
  • sonycam, on 05/02/2008, -1/+2To those who are saying China copies, should create its own ideas ect... it's because China is SERIOUSLY low on creative people. From birth they're taught in the power of the group, individualism is generally considered a bad thing and so they're lacking the same creativity that we have in the West.
  • usuallyjusta, on 05/02/2008, -0/+0"better as"?
  • xeno439, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Damn, I was gonna buy that domain name . . .
    Guess I will have to go with http://www.xioaneuixue.co.ch.com after all.
  • OrchidfromCN, on 05/02/2008, -1/+6As a Chinese and a user of xiaonei & Facebook,I feel very shamed to hear this.
    However,Chinese and the westerners have already misunderstood each other.

    PS:FB is terribly slow in China(much slower than Google.com and wiki[a blocked site in China,if there is no proxy…]) ,so I have to turn to XN.

    PS ag:We are all human beings,there are no so many differences,if you’ve ever been to China,you’ll get a better impression of her.The difference is that we’re in different stage of development, and I think it’s where the diffences come from. please give us some time to improve ourselves.

    最后我想说句：政治是政治，人民无罪。
  • momsshizzle, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1Hi5.com is better than any other social site if you want international friends.
  • WikiEasy, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1I've been following xiaonei for a while now, and every time there's a change in facebook, xiaonei copies them very quickly.
    For instance, when facebook got rid of the guy in the headers, xiaonei did the same. You see the jagged tab look on the right top edge? Xiaonei copied that not soon after facebook did it.

    The signup now looks very similar. The left menu drop-down navigation is almost identical. They even started offering company networks and regional networks.

    However, xiaonei lets users post crappy html snippets in their profiles, making many member pages more like myspace pages than facebook pages. It's ugly and it's everywhere.
  • jyac, on 05/02/2008, -0/+0There is a old Chinese phrase, the grape is sour if one can't able to eat it. That's how I see those digger who left comments like copy cat or go invent your own. McDonald is the 1st franchise fast food store, it's so successful. And now tons of fast foods use the same idea from McDonald, and they all doing well. you can call them copy cats, but as long as they do well, you have to give them credit, they have the guts to try it.
  • herecomes, on 05/02/2008, -0/+3So they support Chinese and Chinese. That's going to win big market share outside of China.
  • Funkleft, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Is there anyone still wondering why the global economy is so ***** up?
  •  

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