Jun 30
Xiao Nei (校内) is a popular Chinese online networking website. Users can find old college buddies, chat online and see what their friends are up to. You can write on people’s walls, send them messages, join various networks and there are even fun applications you can install.
Sadly, Xiaonei.com is only available in Chinese but don’t worry if Chinese isn’t your forte. One bright Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg, has copied this idea into English and called it Facebook.
It was initially only available to Harvard University students, but it is now available to everyone. You probably haven’t heard of Facebook yet, but WoAi predicts that it will become very popular one day!
June 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I heard some Stanford University students copied Baidu – but I can’t see some website called “Google” ever taking off. I mean, can you ever see anyone saying “I’m going to Google ‘Jessica Alba’”? Weird, no?
I’m off to Baidu Zhang Ziyi.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:02 am
i believe you have it the other way around. Xiao Nei copied facebook. Facebook originally launched as thefacebook.com and launched back in 2004. Where as Xiao Nei launched over a 1.5 years later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaonei
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
June 30th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
T – There’s even an English version of QQ now. Those bloody American students, they’ll copy anything, this is an outrage, America should be banned from the WTO until they sort their sh*t out!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I wouldn’t mind giving Zhang ziyi a bloody good baidu-ing either, I’d baidu her until her eyes went googley!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Wiseman – Join the line pal!
June 30th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
is Zhang Ziyi that girl in the wheelchair who carried the torch?
June 30th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Yes James, that’s her. She was also in Memoirs of a Geisha and House Of The Flying Swiss Army Knives.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
She also stars on the China Olympic Diving team and got booted off the team 2 years for making such a big to-do about her out-of-pool life.
Last week she made headlines by beating the World #1 at Wimbeldon to advance to the quarterfinals of the ladies singles draw.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
HMMMM…Xiaonei.com launched in October 2005, whereas facebook.com launched in July 2004. Who is copying who again?
June 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
njd and textron – Thanks for your correction. Now, if you have a dictionary handy, look up the word IRONY. Dear oh dear!! Even if you didn’t quite get my dry humour, T’s comment (the first person to comment today) about Baidu and Google should have tipped you off!
China has a very bad record for counterfeiting and copying everything from handbags and watches to automobiles, that’s the message I was trying to put across in a subtle manner, perhaps a bit too subtle for you!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
My bad…carry on!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I dunno, I think my counterfit Royal Oak is quite good, actually. Or did you mean bad meaning good?
June 30th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
njd – No, you weren’t the only one so maybe it’s me who needs to be a bit more explicit in future.
Rich – I mean the record is bad, the products are well, they vary from good to downright useless. You got lucky!
June 30th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Never mind business laws or intellectual property, it’s the lack of shame that takes the breath away in cases like these. If you are good enough to code a Chinese language Facebook clone, why not change the colours and fonts or something … anything.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Actually there is a legit English version of the Chinese QQ for both Windows and Mac OS X at http://nstanosheck.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-get-qq-number-for-english.html
July 1st, 2008 at 12:13 am
Andy – I think you hit the nail on the head. The talent is there but it’s all channeled into imitating existing concepts which is a real pity. Great comment!
July 1st, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Woai – how can you possible say these people have talent for copying other peoples work. Its not talent at all! They have the technical knowhow from rote learning things, thats all. You could train a monkey to do that! Its the lack of personal creativity thats shocking, and like you said, PRIDE! They really need to learn to think for themselves……Any chance?
July 1st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Well, I wouldn’t know how to set up an exact copy of Facebook, so that’s why I said they had talent of some kind but point taken. Let me see if I can train Tommy to updte my blog every day!
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 am
I said monkey!
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Tommy is smarter than a monkey. He KNOWS stuff!
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
check this
http://www.qiangnei.com/
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
For those looking for La Coste goods, save yourself some money and go to the French Crocodilian Clothing Company on Fuzhou Lu…
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
New In Shanghai – My mate James gets all his clothes there!
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I think the Chinese, with all their copy-cat products, are reconfiguring the fundamentals of capitalism. Who gives a damn about innovation, creative destruction, etc. if you can make money by copying others’idea? Schumpeter revisited…I always like your British humour Woai! T’s comment was also great! But next time you guys should behave responsibily to avoid misleading people ^_^
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Wancestyle – Thanks, lesson learned, trust me, no more humour on this site, ever again, of any kind, and certainly no more British humour, except maybe on Fridays and public holidays!
And for balance I should remind everyone that copying goes on everywhere, it’s just to what degree. Me too products can be found in the UK for example and supermarkets there often come up with their own private label version of established brands like Heinz Baked Beans and McVites Jaffa Cakes.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I agree – in UK supermarkets, retailer copycat private labels abound! And what about Zara? How would you define it if not a copycat brand? Often their copycat designs reach their stores even before the imitated designer products reach their respective stores. In theory, this speed in distribution protects ZARA from any accusation of copying. AMAZING!
July 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Strange. I’m not sure what kind of market they plan to get since most Chinese can also access facebook too.
July 4th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Mark – Many Chinese can’t read and write English well, so the market they are going for is this segment.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
[...] Cloned in China This blogger has a good sense of humour (more than the people who commented on his blog entry [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
nah, facebook is availabel in chinese now isn’t it?
July 5th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Dingle – It is but it is blocked in China whereas Xiao Nei isn’t.
http://zh-cn.facebook.com
I’m using a VPN but feel free to try it.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Good sense of humour!
American students party all night long and collaborate on exams to pass their courses…anyone disagree?
We need innovation, and don’t blame the chinese for not innovating, since they are masters at bootlegs…they just focus on different area to innovate instead
nice post…cheers!
July 5th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Sam – That’s a difficult question. Can copying something be described as innovation if it’s done well?
July 5th, 2008 at 6:12 am
peter, I’m in Korea right now but the Chinese facebook worked in Wenzhou earlier in the week, the hotel room had a desktop and kept loading it instead of the english version
July 5th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Dingle – You’re right it loads now. Might have been a temporary anomaly or the crap connection at the office.
July 5th, 2008 at 10:44 am
get ur fact straight b4 posting.
it’s totally the other way around.
July 5th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
F – Are you serious? I don’t think so. Everything is invented in China, then it gets copied by others. I suppose you think fireworks and paper were invented in the US too!
July 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
LOL! I am confused! The subtle line between irony and seriousness is blurring now!
July 5th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Wancestyle – Yes indeed. It’s because the readerships is made up of two types. Those like yourself, with a sense of humour and those who take everything at face value, so I have to adopt a serious approach for them and my usual dry humour of the rest of you.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
F – learn to write before commenting. (hint: ur and b4 are not words)
July 6th, 2008 at 12:45 am
T – I think learn to READ the other comments before commenting is better advice for our new good friend, F.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:53 am
There’s been legitimate legal research done that argues that China’s IP infringement problems stem from a cultural emphasis on copying in their educational system. Something along the lines of “Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.” The notion is that copying is essential to education and is not considered a violation of any rights at all.
I think this also runs afoul of the communist ideal. Other legal research has pointed out that IP rights are individual rights and, as such, run counter to the ideas of social ownership that dominated much of the 20th century.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Does it not partly stem from the cultural revolution when factories from Eastern Europe were disassembled and went to Russia and then passed on to China?
July 13th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Mnem – I have spoken with some Chinese colleagues, and they confirm that copying and other forms of cheating in school are essentially a way of life here, though it’s not “flattery” like you suggest, but a combination survival mechanism and face-saving tool. While there are officially rules against it, everyone pretends it doesn’t go on. In part it is because it allows everyone to save face if students do well even if they don’t know the material. After all, if students do poorly, it reflects badly on the teachers and the administration, who are more concerned about looking good to their superiors than the success of their students. Each level of school passes the problem (unprepared students) on to the next higher level, where it becomes someone else’s problem. Another side effect is that the honest student is actually at a disadvantage, and the fierce competition to get into the best colleges causes some of them to give in and go with the crowd.
And to be fair, stuff like this happens in the US as well, though maybe not on such a widespread level.
However, there have been some recent scandals involving test answers getting circulated in advance, and I’ve heard of school officials getting canned. Rumor has it that the standardized tests are printed in a prison, and that prisoners make money by selling the questions.
–jd
July 13th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Mnem – Wow this discussion has become quite deep, but I think there are some very interesting insights being given here. I don’t go along 100% with the “imitation is okay because it’s flattery” idea. I think the people who do it know it’s wrong. There MIGHT be something in the idea that under communism there’s no individual ownership. I remember being a bit surprised when people in my office used to just take my stuff and use, before realising that in their minds it’s not mine, but at best belongs to the organisation that employs us. But surely that type of notion is fast disappearing and many individuals here are developing a “me, me, me” kind of attitude.
Dingle – Not sure about that one either.
Rocketship – Your most important point for me was that the honest pupil will suffer or he / she will give in and cheat like the rest. That’s a sad fact. My only hope is things will gradually change, because I believe China will never truly catch up with the west until its people learn and are encouraged to think for themselves rather than to imitate what’s already there.
All this has been quite heavy, I think I need a lie down now …
July 13th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Chang Jiang motorbike/sidecars are a good example Woai, you see plenty of these on the streets right now.
Basically they’re BMWs which the nazis subcontracted to Russia, who subsequently passed it on to China.
Still, not sure if copying was endemic before this.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve visited customers here and they have component from European customers on their desk and they’re making direct copies. They ask “please tell us how they make this” and I say, I can’t, that’s our customer’s know-how. They really can’t understand why not, it’s like “but if we make this we will buy your material and everyone wins”
July 13th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Dingle – Yes I see what you’re getting at but I just thought that wasn’t a conscious effort to copy something as the factory line was already there and set up that was to reproduce BMW clones. However, your copying components story does hit a chord and I am now revising my earlier comment when I said they know it’s not right!
August 1st, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Now that you’ve caught up with British irony, perhaps you could consider the possibility that the Chinese too can be ironic. Just perhaps, the originators of Xiao Nei, knowing that westerners would whine about “non-creative orientals,” chose to mimic Facebook’s color and format to give our legs a good pulling! After all, what could have been easier than to change the format and details to avoid this accusation?
After WWII, people droned on about how the Japs copied everything, until Japanese products became both creative and desirable, when we shut up. Perhaps people in rich countries should encourage those in less rich ones to copy all they can, and to catch up fast – wouldn’t that be the decent attitude to our fellow humans?
August 1st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Ross – It’s an interesting theory but I doubt that they were being ironic at all, they simply wanted a copy of Facebook in my opinion and making it look different would defeat the objective. And I don’t think we need to *let* them copy all they can, they’re doing it already.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:42 pm
ys this is really in chinese. translators cannot tranlate the website properly because developers meant it for chinese.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Chineses don’t invent, they follow. Baidu is a copy of Google, and Xiaonei is a copy of Facebook. Yeah ok, why not, I’ve got nothing against it.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
WoW….I never knew…Amercias such copycats….
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 am
hahaaa……….i just want to give a BIG-BIG clap hand to some chinese people here…………
you said facebook copy xiaonei…???
google copy baidu???
HAH!!!! search for xingbake coffee case and see what the founder say about their company!!!
August 12th, 2009 at 1:07 am
英语信息好旺
October 8th, 2009 at 7:09 am
HAHAHAHA … VERY FUNNY STUFF!!
FACEBOOK COPY FROM XIONEI???????? LOOOOOL
u made my day!
October 8th, 2009 at 11:38 am
@Cat – I’m glad you found it funny. A few people didn’t quite understand the humour of this post!
October 12th, 2009 at 5:52 am
…………………………….
April 10th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Wow…This is really offensive, because actually, xiaonei actually copied Facebook. It’s pretty outrageous that you think Facebook copied Xiaonei. The chief founders of Facebook plan to file a lawsuit against Xiaonei for copying them, and Xiaonei might go down soon.
April 10th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
don’t believe the facebook propaganda Lena!
April 12th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@Lena: Bring it on! Then we can watch Google Mk. II as the Chinese mainstream press accuses Facebook of meddling in the Chinese internet which has developed traditionally and openly over many years etc. etc. zzzzz.
April 17th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Sigh. Yet another air-headed bimbo who doesn’t understand sarcasm and irony.
April 17th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
@WoAi – even if she didn’t. . . offensive? really? who gets OFFENDED about an erroneous post?
April 17th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
@T – Not only offended but outraged as well. OUTRAGED! It’s not like Lena invented Facebook. At most I think she should be mildly amused. But there you go. Some people have very little happening in their lives.