Game maker Giant invests in Chinese social network 51.com
Scores of cities in China have more than a million people, and 51.com has beat out its rival social networks to be the most popular in many of them, even if it’s not the most popular in cultural centers like Shanghai and Beijing. It faces both international rivals looking to enter China — including Friendster, Facebook and MySpace — as well as domestic startup rivals like Xiaonei, and social networking features on Tencent’s Qzone.
But, the… Continue Reading
Roundup: Google tests a new social network-esque homepage, Apple ups iPhone orders and more
Here’s the latest action:
Google tests out a new, more functional iGoogle (with a friend update stream) — The company’s personalized homepage service is looking more and more like a — dare I say? — social network. The latest version has side tabs that can contain elements such as a Google Talk widget so you can instant message from the page and a Gmail widget so you can email from the page. Neither of these are new,… Continue Reading
Roundup: Murdoch on media and politics, Intelius a scam?, and more
Rupert Murdoch holds forth on newspapers, Obama and Hollywood release dates: What if Rupert Murdoch were to wake up tomorrow and discover that he was the owner of a metropolitan newspaper? “I would run,” the News Corp. owner said today at the All Things D conference. Murdoch also admitted that he’d been involved in the editorial decision of the New York City-based newspaper The New York Post, a News Corp subsidiary, to endorse presidential candidate Barack… Continue Reading
Leading Chinese social network 51.com raising $50 million round, to launch platform for third-party developers
Dispatch 1 from Beijing
I’ve just landed in Beijing and I managed to get to a Chinese tech conference called CHINICT in time to hear some interesting local social networking news. 51.com, one of the largest social networks in the country, is closing a $50 million round and plans to launch a platform for third party developers later this summer.
This is notable because 51.com has more than 25 million monthly active users, and more than 100… Continue Reading
Intel Capital’s new investments: 51.com, Aternity, Ceedo, Phoenix, Tutor.com
Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of of the giant chip company Intel, announced six investments into new companies at its CEO Summit.
We already mentioned Jajah (see our story). Here are the others:
51.com — Intel Capital leads a Series B investment in 51.com, which Intel calls the largest social networking site in China with about 60 million registered accounts. The site is especially popular with 17- to 30-year-olds, growing by about 5 million accounts per month…. Continue Reading