China

Kent Lindstrom: Why Friendster refuses to localize for China

In China for AdTech, Friendster’s president, Kent Lindstrom (Current Friendster status: “I’m having fun in Hong Kong”.), told the conference why the site refuses to localize.

From Friendster’s position
Claiming to be largest social network in Asia Pacific and largest Chinese social network outside of mainland China, Friendster was launched in 2003. Current size: 50 million registered users, more than 2 million people join Friendster each month.

social networks are becoming

more global
Social networks are tending towards a few global players, like the three or so instant messenger systems. This is in part due to the fact that no community is an island. By the very nature of the world, someone in your network will have a friend across a border, even if you do not.

more standardized
Socialization has more similarities than differences around the world: People want to communicate. Unlike eBay or Internet commerce, there are few regulatory issues that directly address social networks. As for content, there are few culture-specific issues since users themselves create the content.

more mobile
People are always connected via mobile, on the other hand, mobile has been the Next Big Thing for the last two years. The mobile aspect will be a supplements to existing web-based social network issues.

more commercially useful
Outside organizations - music groups, political movements, companies - will increasingly tap the power of social networks to reach the 10s of millions of potential fans. There will be major impact on the former gatekeepers - record companies, party hierarchy, distributors - as fans open direct communication with those things they are passionate about.

more open
Social networks no longer see outsiders hacking their platforms as a threat. Instead, opening up and facilitating widgets and content only serves to strengthen the social network itself. This trend started two years ago and look set to continue.

which argues against localization for China (or elsewhere).
“Our expertise is listening to our members and they tell us that we need to be the Chinese language, but other localization is taken care of by our members.”

On anonymity in Friendster:
In response to a question about anonymity, Lindstrom said:
“The web is great at anonymity, but you are not anonymous on a social network. If you are on the web in a group of real friends, you are acting with a level of trust and responsiblity. Those things that are cloaked by anonymity are not done on a social network. Generally people use a social network to broadcast to 30 friends - unlike other kinds of broadcasting where you try to reach as many people as possible.”
He estimated that 95 percent of Friendster users were presenting their actual identity.

Bonus link: Check out the China photos Lindstrom took while visiting.

Technorati Tags: AdTech, AdTech Beijing, Beijing, China, Friendster, Kent Lindstrom

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