Why Renren fails to be Facebook of China?
Almost all the college students know about a social network, Renren. Advised by senior students, freshmen’s first thing after paying tuition fee is to register on Renren. Because of the college background, and the real-name system, Renren was ever called Facebook of China. When Renren went public in the US one year ahead of the US social network, investors gave it a valuation multiple of more than double what Facebook traded at in private markets.
However, since that listed 2011, Renren’s New York-traded shares have lost four-fifth of their value and taught painful lesson about how fast China’s internet sector can change.
As a matter of fact, Renren was Facebook of China. Renren was original, but didn’t evolved. The China market changes really fast, yet few people appreciate that. Renren is the dominator of the social network market in China, however, China does not need a social network on PC. The move away from desk of Chinese is increasingly faster because the cost of smartphone is driven down quickly. According to the research from HSBC, the overall desktop internet traffic down 15%, while the number of smartphones is expected to grow by a fifth this year.
Clearly, the reason why Renren failed to be in the dominant position is too slow to adapt the the rapid rise of smartphone users. In addition, personally, I prefer Renren to Facebook because it is
convenient more me to get contact with my friend. What is more, the page design is more simpler, and the applications are more interesting but not that annoying than those of Facebook.
Reference:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5750f0de-1a93-11e3-b3da-00144feab7de.html#axzz2gFfjnj1c
