Set up some Virtual Fun

Community building in China

[grandpa]

There's an interesting article [nytimes.com] in the NYT about the current state of social networking in China, with a slant to the current leader of that market, Pony Ma. Some distinctions are made in the article about differences in the average internet user in China and the US.

While America’s Internet users send e-mail messages and surf for information on their personal computers, young people in China are playing online games, downloading video and music into their cellphones and MP3 players and entering imaginary worlds where they can swap virtual goods and assume online personas.

Another distinguishing feature is the youthful face of China’s online community. In the United States, roughly 70 percent of Internet users are over the age of 30; in China, it is the other way around — 70 percent of users here are under 30...

Interesting statements. I use the internet more for information than for entertainment, but I've had the sense that many more people in the US were using the web for entertainment, even if they are a statistical minority.

The article ends with this quote

But Mr. Ma is not standing still. “There are a lot of opportunities in the market now,” he said. “The leader of the market today may not necessarily be the leader tomorrow.”

Worth a read.

[rogerd]

It will be interesting to see how widespread social networking collides with government controls. A high level Chinese politico just made a statement last week about the need to "purify the Internet".