Funny things keep happening. Not long ago, Qianxiang Group successfully bought Kaixin.com from 9158.com, and then quietly launched the group’s first vertical SNS community aimed specifically at white-collar workers, “Kaixin.com” (note: it’s http://www.kaixin.com/, not http://www.kaixin001.com/). In the post An SNS Bloodbath Triggered by a Single Domain Name: Qianxiang’s Version of Kaixin.com Officially Goes Live!, it says:
From Facebook to Kaixin001, Qianxiang has once again copied their biggest potential competitor from top to bottom, and this time they even carried the borrow-ism mindset over to the competitor’s name and initial marketing strategy.
As everyone knows, Xiaonei copied FACEBOOK and has already become the most powerful SNS in China today. That copy gave Qianxiang a taste for it. What do you do when there’s a domestic competitor? Keep copying — just copy the whole thing through and through, and don’t even spare the name.
Now the world has two Kaixin.coms, and the latecomer even has the better domain name… Think about it — Qianxiang’s move is nasty and formidable at the same time…
Even better: someone is now striking while the iron is hot, and along comes xiaonei001.com…….
Also, I came across this article recently, and it’s well written: “A Review of Domestic SNS Sites: It’s All One Big Pot of Porridge“. Give it a read if you’re interested (original post).