Xiaonei (校内网, literally “on-campus network”), the leading social networking site popular among college students in China, announces to rebrand to Renren (人人网,  literally “everyone’s network”) on 4th August so as to target the mass market. Chen Yizhou, CEO of Xiaonei’s parent company Oak Pacific Interactive (千像互动集团), declares the reason and plan in a public PR letter to Xiaonei’s users.

Xiaonei was started in December 2005 by Tsinghua University graduates Wang Xing, Wang Huiwen, Lai Binqiang and Tang Yang. In October 2006, Xiaonei was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive, a Chinese Internet consortium that created a similar college social network called 5Q. Qak Pacific Interactive bought the Renren.com domain in 2005.

In November 2007, Xiaonei broadened its target market to a wider user base via opening registration to high school students and white-collars. At present, 32,000 universities and colleges, 56,000 high schools and 85,000 companies in China and 1,500 universities in 29 other countries are available on Xiaonei’s confirmation system. Today, Xiaonei is recognized as “China’s largest online community website among universities” with more than 22 million active users and an estimated 40 million users who have registered their real names.

However, its rival Kaixin001 (开心网, literally “happy network”), a Chinese social networking site which launched in April 2008 for white-collar market, has been the fastest developed SNS in China. Compared with Xiaonei, Kaixin001 appeals to white-collar office workers with a simpler UI that is more intuitive to older audiences. This is a significant detail in China, where one in four college students does not own a computer and can only access Xiaonei by walking to an Internet Cafe and paying by the minute. White-collar office workers by comparison, spend an average of eight hours a day in front of the computer.

Relevant Information

WALL STREET JOURNAL  |  21st May, 2009  |

The operator of one of China’s most popular social network, Kaixin001.com, has filed a lawsuit against Oak Pacific Interactive, which started a competing service in October under Kaixin.com.

In the suit, Kaixin001.com has asked that Oak Pacific Interactive stop using the Kaixin.com name. Kaixin001.com, was launched in March 2008 and had 20m registered accounts and 700m page views by April 2009. It is best known for its addictive online games. But the rapid growth of Kaixin001.com posed a direct challenge to Xiaonei.com, currently the biggest and most influential social network in China, which also happens to be owned by Oak Pacific Interactive.

When Oak Pacific Interactive launched Kaixin.com, it also adopted a layout and game options that looked a lot like those of Kaixin001.com. The new Kaixin.com soon became popular, perhaps in part because some users thought they were logging onto Kaixin001.com.

Presently, Kaixin001 ranks the 12th most popular website in China, while Xiaonei ranks the 25th, and Kaixin ranks the 72nd, according to Alexa.

UPDATE 2009.8.6  |  relevant information:
China Web2.0 Review: No Xiaonei Anymore, Here Comes RenRen
DamnDigital: 千橡互动“校内网”今日更名为“人人网”