Online 'Slave Trade' A National Phenomenon

No one takes serious note of what people say online, but the latest Net greeting definitely has a shock value. After all, it says: Please buy me as your slave.

The friend sale application of the Facebook-styled Website Kaixin, gives users a whole new set of experiences compared with the run-of-the-mill social Websites. And not surprisingly, companies are all set to cash in on this obsession.

Kaixin (kaixin001.com), which means happiness in Chinese, is a new entrant to the Chinese SNS (social network service).

Its two top applications, friend sales and parking wars, are being lapped up.

At friend sales, each user can be sold as a slave twice every day through the virtual money system. The masters can earn money by forcing the slaves to work as singers, miners or toilet cleaners. Or, they could just be torched for fun.

The parking war game is of the more sanitized variety. Every user here gets his or her own parking street. If he or she catches a friend parking illegally, they can ticket them and earn money from it. The winners can then go and buy some virtual cars.

The two games have become an obsession of sorts with Netizens in China.

I can't focus on work after joining the Website, said Rebecca Zhang, a newcomer to Kaixin. Zhang added six applications, including friend sales and parking war, within an hour of joining Kaixin. She was soon bought as a slave.

The Chinese SNS user base has grown phenomenally over the years. In 2006, the user base was 61 million. It is expected to hit 110 million this year and 180 million by 2010, according to Shanghai-based Internet consulting firm iResearch.

Kaixin is hot now. It's the latest example of the next generation of SNS. Such Websites have become popular since the end of last year, said Tan Bin, an analyst at CCID Consulting.

I am glad that someone wants to buy me. It shows you are popular among friends, said Wang Qi. Her selling price has become more than 7,000, which is 10 times her original price.

The new SNS allows only friends to access the Webpage, making these more attractive, according to Tan at CCID, a research firm authorized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Kaixin, which is founded by Sina's former chief technology officer, declined to comment on the site's popularity, insisting that it was in the trial stage.

The new SNS Websites, with their strong interactivity, are now immensely attractive to various Net services, according to Xiaonei, a Softbank-funded site. Xiaonei also has friend sales and parking war applications.

Softbank has invested US$430 million in Xiaonei. The site had 22 million users by the end of March.

Xiaonei has become China's biggest SNS Website for students, allowing them to find their classmates in university, middle school or even primary school.

Rupert Murdoch's MySpace has also set up office in Beijing to cater to the China market and demand. It provides users several hundred models to help them design their Webpages and offers the latest music with copyright.

Myspace.cn announced last month that it would provide game applications for the first time through its developer platform. The Website expected more revenue and online traffic with the convergence of games and online communities, said Luo Chuan, chief executive of MySpace.cn.

The site has about 4 million registered users in China, and Murdoch hopes to hit 50 million in two years.

Till now, domestic Websites like Hainei, Xiaonei and Kaixin have led the market in China. Along the way, they picked up ideas like friends for sale and parking wars from overseas rivals like MySpace and Facebook,

Other applications on the Chinese SNS Websites include "footprint," favorite films and vote and test. However, the Chinese SNS Websites had to develop more applications if they were to stay popular with young Netizens, Tan said.

The next generation of SNS was the convergence of mobile phone and location services, such as GPS your friend on Facebook, industry insiders said.

However, the going is not honky dory with domestic SNS Websites. Although they have tried to cash in on the social-networking obsession, most of them are not profitable.

Xiaonei and MySpace depend on income from advertisements. Xiaonei has tied up with Apple, KFC and Samsung for ads. Kaixin did not comment on this aspect.

If you have a big enough user base, you can do anything. Companies can cash in through advertising, e-commerce or even online recruitment, said Tan.

Source: American Shipper