Chinese social networking upstart FaceKoo had a very good day on Nov. 18: It passed MySpace China in page views, according to Alexa. Some people dispute the accuracy of Alexa’s web stats, saying it’s more weighted to the tech elite, who download the Alexa tool bar. Still, even if FaceKoo was close, it was a remarkable feat for an eight-month-old social network with only a few hundred thousand users.
What’s the secret? FaceKoo is focusing on giving users enough unique things to do, while they’re connecting with friends that they never close the site, says my guest, CEO and co-founder Calvin Pak. One of the most popular applications is similar to the facial recognition software the U.S. government uses to scan for known terrorists. Instead, FaceKoo users upload a picture of themselves to see what celebrities they favor.
FaceKoo is trying to beat out more established social networking players in China by playing a Valley game, even though they’re based in China’s hometurf. To understand what that means, take a look at FaceKoo’s founders: Chinese-Americans, who were educated in the Valley, and worked for companies like Zappos, eBay and Yahoo. They moved to Bejing, because like so many others they saw an opportunity that was too big to ignore.
In this clip, Pak tells us about social neworking in China, and how the basic tools may be the same but the applications and the monetization is completely different. And, what American Web 2.0 companies over-reliant on ad markets could learn from the Chinese.
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Chinese social networking upstart FaceKoo had a very good day on Nov. 18: It passed MySpace China in page views, according to Alexa. Some people dispute the accuracy of Alexa’s web stats, saying it’s more weighted to the tech elite, who download the Alexa tool bar. Still, even if FaceKoo was close, it was a remarkable feat for an eight-month-old social network with only a few hundred thousand users.
What’s the secret? FaceKoo is focusing on giving users enough unique things to do, while they’re connecting with friends that they never close the site, says my guest, CEO and co-founder Calvin Pak. One of the most popular applications is similar to the facial recognition software the U.S. government uses to scan for known terrorists. Instead, FaceKoo users upload a picture of themselves to see what celebrities they favor.
FaceKoo is trying to beat out more established social networking players in China by playing a Valley game, even though they’re based in China’s hometurf. To understand what that means, take a look at FaceKoo’s founders: Chinese-Americans, who were educated in the Valley, and worked for companies like Zappos, eBay and Yahoo. They moved to Bejing, because like so many others they saw an opportunity that was too big to ignore.
In this clip, Pak tells us about social neworking in China, and how the basic tools may be the same but the applications and the monetization is completely different. And, what American Web 2.0 companies over-reliant on ad markets could learn from the Chinese.
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