City!N.com prepares for launch in China

Venture Beat — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:00:36 -0800

City!N.com is gearing up for a launch on Thursday in China as the country’s newest social networking service for Asian young adults.

Simon Chan, co-founder of the site says that the site won’t be just another Facebook clone for China. “We differentiate ourselves with innovative features that fit the tastes and interests of Asian (at this stage, Chinese) users,” he said.

And while the site will start as Chinese-only, Chan says it will expand to English and other languages over time.

Users create profiles where they explain their interests such as favorite movies, cars, or celebrities. They rate items and then the site recommends other people in the same local areas who have similar interests.

The company received angel funding in early 2007 from Samson Tam, a Hong Kong entrepreneur who invented an early Chinese-English electronic dictionary. The company’s founders have been refining their recommendation engine and launched two earlier social networks to test it in different parts of China. They found that what interested students in Guangzhou was different from those in Beijing.

Thanks to its close knowledge of Chinese culture, City!N will be tough for outsiders like Facebook and MySpace to beat in the Chinese market, Chan said.