Media (Alex Fuller-Wisner)

Peoplepeople.com (China's Facebook)

So, social media in China.  If they were on Facebook, like the rest of the world (except Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Syria), this would be easy.  We'd just log onto our own accounts and whip out our list of a million new friend requests from the land of the Han.  But the Great Firewall is holding back that flood.  Right now, I'm thinking that's a good thing.


The Chinese, generally speaking, don't have Facebook, so they've turned to other things.  One popular alternative, dare I say "knock-off" with Chinese characteristics, is Renren.com 人人.com, or as it sounds in English, Peoplepeople.com.  Chinese have a real knack for making the function of things starkly apparent in their names.  It's the only redeeming feature of their otherwise impossibly difficult language.  Peoplepeople--what is that site about again?  Uh,...people cozying up to other people.  What's Facebook?  A badly contorted synonym for "photo album," I think.  Right, so it's like Flickr, then?  What the hell is Flicker?  And so, once again, the copy sneaks up on the original.  It's Benjamin's sino-simulacrum.

Anyway, the icon for the site is eye-catching.  It's almost like two peace signs overlapping, lighting a flame where the two touch.  Moving.  In the upper right, we have the platform's description: "Peoplepeople web.  It's China's most authentic and effective social networking platform.  Log into Peoplepeople and dig up old friends and make new ones."  Typical sign up process: email, password, real name, sex, b-day.  The next selection bar to the right of the prompt "I am now..." 我现在 draws attention to itself--"extremely important" 非常重要--and let's us know who the most common users are here.  Your options are limited to "I'm already working" - "I'm in college" - "I'm in High School" - or the creepy self-sabotaging "I'm someone else" 其他身份.  Let's face it, if you're not in the middle, you probably shouldn't be using this site.  This a site for the young educated.  This isn't surprising since the site grew out of an earlier forum called The Intramural Net 校内网 whose special feature was that it locked in networking to only those within a specifically indicated university via email accounts or IPs.  

So, Peoplepeople is for teens and twentysomethings.  That's the demographic really linked in to the internet in China anyway.  But even if you're older (ahem!), there are enough cool features on this thing to warrant opening up an account.  The free music sampling and Pandora-like radio options are incredible.  And I think I want to get addicted to that Chinese Zombie Farm game.  Woohoo!  I'm opening up a page right now...