Google China has released a Q&A site, in partnership with Tianya Club. The Make Meaning blog notes that Tianya Club was founded in 1999 and is one of the most popular discussion forums in China. Tianya has almost 20 million registered users, 80% of whom are 18-35 years old.
As we wrote in July, social search is something that Google is potentially vulnerable in - as Yahoo in particular is enjoying success with its Answers product. Google recently launched an Answers product in Russia and the new China version seems very similar.
The China Web 2.0 Blog also notes some privacy implications: "the first time you use the service, it will give you a privacy alert that your IP information will be recorded for at least two months. And it will be available for authority on request."
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That is a change, alerting the reader/user that their ip information is stored and open to privacy infringement or police use.
A step forward?
Posted by: doug | August 20, 2007 7:23 PM
Just keep hearing from Google China
Posted by: Batteries for laptop-camcorder-camera-pda | August 20, 2007 7:56 PM
The battle between Google China & Baidu has upgraded. But in order to win the victory, Google China still has a lot to do with localization. At least, to further combine the new Answers with its search operation. As Baidu gives a relatively higher rank to Baidu Zhidao, its Q&A product, in the search result pages.
Posted by: bblong | August 20, 2007 10:20 PM