Comments on: Three Tales about Social Networks @ SMU

By: Chang

Chang — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:35:32 +0000

Hmm.. I guess I should double check on this. If Cyworld did get surpassed by FB in Korea, it would have made a pretty big news, which I dont think I have seen yet… And I would say FB still has pretty small traction in Korea.

By: Bernard Leong

Bernard Leong — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:28:19 +0000

Hi Chang,

Yes, you can. The above 3 bullet points is what I have in mind to convey to the students for the social networks.

Are you popping by Singapore anytime soon?

By: Bernard Leong

Bernard Leong — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:27:16 +0000

On Facebook beating CyWorld, the datapoint came from looking at the Alexa ranking for Korea. Currently, Facebook is number 6 and CyWorld is number 9.
Reference: Alexa: Korea.

However, I am ready to acknowledge the limitations of Alexa's cookie approaches, and also we need an independent data point - maybe using another ranking or Google Trends (where Facebook is lacking behind CyWorld - see this search result)

By: Chang

Chang — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:07:56 +0000

Also 1 hours and 9 minutes a bit too long … can I take the above 3 bullet points as summary/digest?

By: Chang

Chang — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:06:01 +0000

Hey Bernard, always enjoying good posts.
Re. Facebook beating Cyworld, can you provide more data point here? What data are we talking about? (Is it UV, PV, …?)

By: Bernard Leong

Bernard Leong — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:09:22 +0000

Hi Andre

There is no standard for micropayments except in the transaction gateways for e.g. PayPal, China Union Pay, Western Union where the transactions from real to virtual currency is done. CyWorld has its own virtual currency called Dotori, 51.com has 51 coins, QQ with QQ coins and RenRen has Renren coins.

For the East Asian social networks, the transactions are most focused on the platform while Mig33 utilizes a more offline platform via pre-paid cards approach.

By: Andre Siregar

Andre Siregar — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:54:50 +0000

Bernard, thank you for being so generous with your knowledge and sharing this. The presentation is very insightful.
Regarding Facebook beating Cyworld in Korea, I believe that is the trend. The apps argument is a good one. But also, people are becoming more global (Thomas Friedman wrote about this 5 years ago) and their friends are everywhere in the world. Cyworld, QQ, Mixi, etc. benefit from the language barrier, but that barrier is getting weaker by the day.

I also wanted to ask you a question: Is there a standard for micro-payments in East Asia countries? Or do Mixi, Cyworld, etc. have their own virtual currencies? And are they using the same model as Mig33 for distributing the virtual currencies? Thanks.

By: fated82

fated82 — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:19:29 +0000

Yes, I agree that to be successful in any social media campaign, the brand need to have an offline events to accommodate their online efforts. Thanks for the insightful article.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:55:42 +0000

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by bleongcw: My Added Notes on the talk Three Tales on Social Networks @ SMU: http://bit.ly/bIRFRP for the class #comm215 @commuicateasia…