Renren, one of the biggest Chinese social networks, has been selected as the first social networking application for Windows upcoming Windows store. The Windows 8 version of the application uses the famed “Metro” look, with various large, colorful rectangles. The “HD” refers to the fact that it’s optimized to be used on a large screen tablet.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews. 
Just because you can travel the world with the click of a mouse doesn’t mean you should. To stay competitive in a global market, brands need to back their social media efforts with a strong presence in the real world. At a Social Media Week panel on social marketing for global markets, a panel of experts shared their best practices for marketing with RenRen, Mixi and other international networks.
Renren, after a pretty tough couple of months that’s seen the stock come down from an IPO of between $12 and $14 to around $5 today, has joined other Chinese stocks in some of their best rallies of the year. Renren CEO Joseph Chen pointed out that mobile demand is boosting the user numbers. This could mark a revolution in the way Chinese users use the social network — mobile has always been a popular form of networking in the East, as proved by the Japanese social networks GREE and DeNa.
Investors have put some serious volume into investing in Renren, the “Chinese Facebook” over the last three days, seemingly identifying the site as a possible social media growth stock that can ride the coattails of Facebook. Between January 29th and the end of the 30th, the stock rose from around $4 to a high of $6.50, but has since come down to around $5.50. The question is whether the stock will continue to grow as the Facebook IPO goes through.
Pinterest clones are popping up all over the place after the site’s 2011 success, and the sincerest form of flattery is continuing all the way into China. The new service is called Renren Guangjie, and allows you to simply pin images onto your site. It seems that most of the posted images come from one source, though.
Following Shanghai’s recent move ordering Sina Weibo — China’s Twitter equivalent — to have users report their real names to keep better tabs on them, China’s Tencent has announced that they will not ask users of their QQ social network to provide their real names. The announcement came from Chief Executive Pony Ma and is in opposition to many real-name policies being activated across China.
The year 2011 is safely behind us, and it looks like the future of social media is all downhill from here. It seems the bigger companies are consolidating, either by buying out competitors or enhancing their own services. A new infographic looks at the major events of 2011.
Chinese social network Renren is one of the first social networking companies to have gone public here in America, and while it’s often derided as China’s “Facebook clone”, the service now boasts between 30 and 40 million monthly active users. In addition to its growing popularity, the site is also home to some of those strange stories that could only happen on a social network. The most recent is the story of a woman, Lin Yu of Huazhong Agricultural University, who has posted a “Husband Wanted” post, asking people to apply to marry her.
If you follow emerging social networks news, you’ll often find yourself standing face to face with odd terms like “renren” or “sina weibo”, and for some, it’s tough to even begin to understand what they represent. Fortunately, the folks over at G+ have put together a fantastic infographic looking at social media behavior in China. From Youku to Jiepang, this one’s got you set.
RenRen, the top Chinese social network, has purchased China-based video and photo sharing site 56.com. Reports state that the deal exchanged around $80 million.
56.com was launched in 2005 and is a Chinese photo and video sharing site where users can upload, view and share videos — just like on YouTube. The almost all of the videos on the site are user-generated. The videos consist of mingling content from performing artists, amateur groups and video aficionados.
Renren has more or less 30 million active monthly visitors and roughly 100 million registered users in total. The popular platform is similar to Facebook or the closest social platform China has to Facebook. Renren has been growing steadily and even went public this year. The social network was introduced on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “RENN.”
56.com’s image sharing features will increase RenRen draw. Joseph Chen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Renren, says that 56.com capabilities are complimentary to RenRen users’ social media behavior. In a release he said, “We expect that the synergies and cross marketing opportunities between 56.com and Renren.com communities will further drive growth in user engagement, traffic, and advertising solutions to clients.”
56.com doesn’t arrive at RenRen empty handed. The company has raised $30 million in funding from Sequoia, Steamboat Ventures, Adobe and others.
Blending 56.com’s ability to share photos and videos is sure to give users more creativity to express what they are doing and to impart moments with their family and friends. It will be interesting to see how many more visitors and subscribers come on board after RenRen implements 56.com features.
