DISQUS

Marshall Kirkpatrick · 1 year ago

Great, here comes the Xiaonei app spam! lol

Marc Fawzi · 1 year ago

Are we doing all we can to compete as well as collaborate with China?

David Oliver · 1 year ago

The WSJ is reporting that the investment was about $96m for a 14% stake. This deal is surprising - Oak Pacific Interactive has shown an ability to raise large sums of money in the past but has not had much in the way of results to show for it.

Christian Cadeo · 1 year ago

Bloomberg is also reporting at $96MM with warrants to increase to total of $385MM by 2011. Is this $430MM inclusive of these warrants that may/may not be called?

Also this infusion is for the parent company and not purely for Xiaonei.

Matt Marshall · 1 year ago

Christian/David,

Yes, the money came through the parent company, but it was earmarked mainly for Xiaonei -- to blow it out. At least that's what the company tells me. Also, the company told me $430M, and I talked with David Chao about it extensively about the deal, and he didn't qualify the amount. I'm checking nevertheless.

Matt Marshall · 1 year ago

Have updated the article further.

Jon Hart · 1 year ago

matt, amazing news... seems Li Ka-Shing bet on the wrong horse.

some other SN (facebook look a likes) to look out for...

odnoklassniki.ru (eastern europe)
vkontakte.ru (russia mainly)
sonico.com (latin america)
studivz.net (germany)

It will be fun to see how all this plays out this year... seems nobody wants to lose out in the SN craze.

113.com · 1 year ago

Nice round.

David Oliver · 1 year ago

I would believe the WSJ number of $96m. There are a few Facebook clones in China, Xiaonei is just one of them. There is also a debate in China about whether Chinese prefer to use these types of services, or a combination of IM and other services to stay in touch. Tencent would still be considered the dominant leader by most people.

This seems to me more like Softbank taking a punt. As I said before OPI has been very successful at raising money from outside investors.

Christian Cadeo · 1 year ago

Matt,

Some additional datapoints courtesy of Pacific Epoch:

22MM total users/12.7MM daily users/280MM Monthly PV/US$500K - $850K ad revenue a month

http://www.pacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=1218...

Matt Marshall · 1 year ago

Dave, I've clarified further with updates. WSJ number appears to be wrong. Also, no warrants or anything like that I'm told. Looks like there was some bad translation from the Nikkei article.

Matt Marshall · 1 year ago

Thanks Christian, will point to that.

Orchid · 1 year ago

As 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：人民无罪。

treelovinhippie · 1 year ago

OK, if you're given $430M... design something other than the Facebook look (it's not that great anyway).

Facebook Quiz · 1 year ago

Considering cross market spread ability with Xiaonei is slim to none for the near future.

SC · 1 year ago

It is purely a capital game--XiaoNei has a fatal flaw in its positioning. First, open API has big issue with Government (which imposes strong control for content). Second, unlike the western world, Chinese are very sensitive of where they came from. Only top university grads are proud to let others know their alma mater. Most top school grads understand English and use FaceBook anyways. The only viable revenue model for XiaoNei could be turning itself into a multi-user online game operator. They would most likely becoming another online gaming company (like SNDA), instead of pursuing the SNS path like FaceBook. It does have a stronghold in College market, for they have been paying up students to practically control most dormitories in China. However, their attempt to grow beyond the College market or step into the younger generations had not shown any progress at all--one of the most likely reason could be its FaceBook-like user interface.

Disclaimer: I am currently involved in one of the China SNS website, so I have been studying this category extensively. It also means that I could be very biased. ;)

lucy · 1 year ago

amazing news

auto insurance calculator · 1 year ago

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xiaonei · 1 year ago

Nice round

jimmy dragon · 1 year ago

1. Unlike American students, do Chinese students have access to unlimited credit cards to spend on social networks?

2. Given the size of China population and social network audience, does a $1 billion valuation value each user/subscriber at $1 per user versus $50 per user at Facebook. What is the fair valuation based upon per user?___$10 dollars, $20 dollars___??

3. There is a profitable Chinese social network company with 40 million users at $20 million net income. Is this company's valuation based upon PE ratio of 20x $20 million or $40 million, or $2 billion based upon Facebook per user valuation?

Ragtube.com · 1 year ago

IWe want to post on this website... problem is I dont read the language.

Thanks
Team Ragtube
Ragtube.com

Ben Right · 1 year ago

How much money does it actually cost to simply build a site like Facebook or Myspace?

I understand the major costs are in marketing, but what about the site construction itself?

yanninbj · 4 months ago

With Facebook now blocked since this month, doesn't this make it a little too easy for Xiaonei? Can't this issue be brought in front of WTO?

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