US backers form big Facebook clone in China

October 26, 2006 | Matt Marshall | Comments | |

xiaonei.bmpA giant Chinese Facebook copycat has just been formed, in part by U.S venture backers.

Xiaonei.com, the college social networking site that has become one of the biggest players in China, and reminding many of Facebook’s site, has been acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive, which has its own Facebook version, 5Q.

Their goal is to merge to the two Chinese leaders, to create a giant in the market. Notable is that both companies have U.S. backers. Oak Pacific is backed by Silicon Valley venture firm Doll Capital Management, and buyout firm General Atlantic. Xiaonei, which means “on campus,” is backed by angel money in part from an unnamed “ex-CTO of Amazon.com.”

There are several other smaller players in the China market.

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Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • While I don't agree with copying facebook down to the detail of the design, it was a smart move considering facebook left the international market wide open with a proven success. More thoughts here...

    http://www.socialdegree.com/2006/10/24/chinese-...
  • I hate to hear this kind of news. this will furtherly encourage C2C(copy to china)business model in china. as a result, the first thing coming into chinese young entrepreneurs's mind is how to copy, not innovate.
  • Meanwhile, check out the German Facebook copycat: www.studivz.de
  • Here is a brief overview of China's campus social networking market.
  • Well. see exact clone better then studivz at http://www.influxive.com/isociety

    these people actually cloned facebook
  • anon
    @ keanu:

    It's not just website concepts they're learning to copy, but also all forms of intellectual property: music, movies, you name it!