Xiaonei Rips Another Page From The Facebook: Opens Platform, Launches Developer Fund
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
Chinese social networking site Xiaonei already has a reputation for basically being a Facebook knock-off. Now it's copying Facebook's strategy too. The company, owned by Oak Pacific Interactive, has announced its own open platform initiative called, cleverly, Open Platform. It acknowledges that the move is similar to Facebook's platform and Google's (NSDQ: GOOG) Open Social. And to go along with the news, it says it's partnering with DCM to launch its own Xiaonei.com APP Fund, to fund third-party startups looking to develop on the platform. It's also holding a related contest for developers. It's not clear how big the fund is, or what kind of payouts there areall they say is that DCM will contribute several million RMB ($1=8 RMB), so that could mean pretty much anything. Of course, these type of contests don't necessarily lead to much. While there's plenty of money going to third-party Facebook developers, Facebook's own initiative has pretty much fizzled. Release.
By Joseph Weisenthal