{"id":5494,"date":"2011-08-22T08:42:43","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T12:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=5494"},"modified":"2011-08-22T08:46:13","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T12:46:13","slug":"chinese-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/chinese-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Websites"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that one of the most popular activities in China is to surf the internet<\/strong> (\u4e0a\u7f51\u51b2\u6d6a \u2013 sh\u00e0ng w\u01ceng ch\u014dng l\u00e0ng). In fact, on nearly every street corner in Beijing, you will find an internet bar<\/strong> (\u7f51\u5427 \u2013 w\u01ceng b\u0101), often filled to capacity with chain smoking teenagers aggresively clicking away while engaged in an intense round of Counter Strike or World of Warcraft. If you\u2019d like to read more about China\u2019s affinity for online gaming, Steve has already written a great pos<\/a>t about this. In a country with more internet users than the entire population of the United States, with more and more people getting online every day, it begs the question \u2013 what exactly are these 420 million people<\/a> doing online? While it is true that the Great (Fire) Wall of China will keep you from accessing popular Western sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Blogspot, China has its own variety of each of these popular sites, attracting millions of visitors each and every day.<\/p>\n

Social Networking <\/strong>(\u793e\u4ea4\u7f51\u7edc \u2013 sh\u00e8 ji\u0101o w\u01ceng lu\u00f2)<\/p>\n

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The Everyone Network<\/p><\/div>\n

Sure, Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s world-wide phenomenon is inaccessible in Mainland China, but that hasn\u2019t stopped Chinese people from jumping on the social networking bandwagon. The most popular site for this is www.renren.com<\/a> (\u4eba\u4eba\u7f51 \u2013 r\u00e9n r\u00e9n w\u01ceng), which translates literally as the \u201ceveryone network.\u201d With over 160 million users, the site is extremely popular amongst college students. Just like Facebook, users create a profile with information about their education, hobbies, and hometown. The popularity of this site is extending outside of the Middle Kingdom, as Renren is geared up to make an IPO<\/a> in the US. If you want to find your friends in China, this is probably the best place to look!<\/p>\n

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Searching the Web<\/strong><\/p>\n

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China's answer to Google.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sure, we\u2019ve all read about the trials and tribulations of Google in China<\/a>, but the American search giant isn\u2019t the only way to find what you\u2019re looking for on the web. In China, if you are going to do a search, chances are you\u2019re using Baidu<\/strong><\/a>(\u767e\u5ea6 \u2013 b\u01cei d\u00f9). With a catchy slogan, \u201c\u767e\u5ea6\u4e00\u4e0b\uff0c\u4f60\u5c31\u77e5\u9053 \u2013 B\u01cei d\u00f9 y\u012b xi\u00e0, n\u01d0 ji\u00f9 zh\u012b d\u00e0o,\u201d which translates roughly to, \u201cJust use Baidu, and then you\u2019ll know,\u201d this Beijing based site pulls in about an 84% share of the Chinese search engine market. According to Robin Li (one of the founders of the site), \u201cBaidu, whose literal meaning is hundreds of times, represents persistent search for the ideal.\u201d You can do just about everything on Baidu, with search features for news, MP3s, videos, and just about anything else you can imagine. In 2007, Baidu becamse the first Chinese company to be offered on the NASDAQ 100.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Online Shopping <\/strong>(\u7f51\u4e0a\u8d2d\u7269 \u2013 w\u01ceng sh\u00e0ng g\u00f2u w\u00f9)<\/p>\n

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A much cheaper eBay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Harnessing the power of the internet for shopping is becoming more and more popular in China. In fact, according to this BBC article<\/a>, \u201cLast year, $82bn (\u00a350.4bn) worth of retail sales in China were online transactions. That is just about a tenth of the total retail sales, but a 95% increase on the value of internet transactions a year earlier.\u201d So where does all of this online shopping take place? Well, a lot of it goes down on Taobao<\/strong> (\u6dd8\u5b9d\u7f51 \u2013 t\u00e1o b\u01ceo w\u01ceng). Similar to eBay in the US, Taobao allows entrepreneurs to open online retail stores for business-consumer or consumer-consumer sales. As of the end of last year, there were 370 million users on Taobao, as well as over 800 million product listings.<\/p>\n

Chatting\/Videos\/Dating<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask any Chinese college student what they like to do online, and you\u2019re almost guaranteed to hear, \u201cChat on QQ.\u201d The most popular instant messaging service in China is also the world\u2019s largest online community, with over 636 million users. Where Facebook eats into study time and serves as the ultimate distraction for US college students, QQ does a similar job of lowering grades for their Chinese counterparts.<\/p>\n

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QQ's adorable penguin mascots.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Unless you have a VPN, you'll have to settle for this Chinese YouTube.<\/p><\/div>\n

As far as watching TV shows and movies go, look no further than Youku<\/a><\/strong> (\u4f18\u9177). Unlike YouTube, which limits the size\/length of videos that are uploaded, Youku allows users to upload entire films, including many made in Hollywood. This is a result of poorly enforced copyright laws in China, although pressure from foreign filmmakers has started to make it more and more difficult to upload and watch copyrighted material.<\/p>\n

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Looking for love?<\/p><\/div>\n

Last but not least, there are the Chinese dating websites. With millions upon millions of single people out there (about 180 million according to this report<\/a>), online entrepreneurs have capitlized on the market for love. Whereas most Chinese of the older generation married their high-school sweetheart, many younger Chinese are finding love online. Websites such as Zhenai<\/strong><\/a> (\u73cd\u7231 \u2013 zh\u0113n \u00e0i \u2013 lit. \u201ccherised love\u201d) and 95195.com<\/strong><\/a> (\u6211\u5728\u627e\u4f60 \u2013 W\u01d2 z\u00e0i zh\u01ceo n\u01d0 \u2013 lit. \u201cI am looking for you) allow users to post pictures and a profile of themselves while they browse those of other singles. Of course, this comes at a cost \u2013 a 6 month membership to Zhenai will run you 3,200 RMB, or about $484. Maybe The Beatles had it all wrong when they said, \u201cMoney can\u2019t buy me love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that you know most of China’s favorite websites, it’s probably time you start learning Chinese so you can understand them. Luckily, we’ve got that covered for you. Just CLICK HERE<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

It\u2019s no secret that one of the most popular activities in China is to surf the internet (\u4e0a\u7f51\u51b2\u6d6a \u2013 sh\u00e0ng w\u01ceng ch\u014dng l\u00e0ng). In fact, on nearly every street corner in Beijing, you will find an internet bar (\u7f51\u5427 \u2013 w\u01ceng b\u0101), often filled to capacity with chain smoking teenagers aggresively clicking away while engaged…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":5500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7995,36190,36188,36196,36191,36193,36195,36192,36194,36197,36200,36202,36199,36201,36198,36189],"class_list":["post-5494","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-baidu","tag-chinese-internet","tag-internet-bar","tag-qq","tag-renren","tag-taobao","tag-wo-zai-zhao-ni","tag-youku","tag-zhenai","tag-36197","tag-36200","tag-36202","tag-36199","tag-36201","tag-36198","tag-36189"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5494"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5509,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5494\/revisions\/5509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}