This writing sample dates from early 2008 and was written for the former techblog86 web site.
techblog86 Mind the Gap Saturday: Microblogging Revisited, China and the West
Can you tell that I’m too much into microblogging? In the latest version of the average David Feng name card, not only is the Web Address of the blog clearly visible, but even the mention “On Twitter and Pownce as DavidFeng” made it. Meanwhile, on my official website, davidfeng.com, Jiwai.de, a kind of “Chinese Twitter” (if you will), also made it. My Facebook and Pownce profiles are chock-full of links to my blog and microblogs (yes, plural intended).
That’s just me, however. How is the microblog world doing in the rest of the People’s Republic?
Attitudes to Microblogging in China
In no particular order, here’s a run-through of the myriad of different attitudes to microblogging in China:
• “Why would I do this?”
• “Invasion of privacy!”
• “This is for people who are dead bored!”
• “What are you talking about?”
• “I’ve 800 people following me. It can get scary!”
• “Not a lot of folks on Twitter — just 250 in Beijing!”
• “You share and record history this way.”
Only a few of the “bigs” are on Twitter (to start with; more local “bigs” are on more local services such as Jiwai.de). Of those that I know off by heart, folks like Kaiser Kuo and Isaac Mao are on Twitter. (In this vein, the Scobleizer and Guy Kawasaki would count — but they’re outside China.) A bigger microblogging pool full of local Netizens await you on sites such as Jiwai.de, Fanfou and Zuosha.
The demographics on the Twitter service David Feng uses tell the tale: most of those folks that follow yours truly (or yours truly follows) are outside national frontiers, although an increasing number are from inside Greater China. Pownce is a bit more silent — friends there are more Chinese-related, but we don’t have a “real local” Pownce-r from China. Jiwai.de, on the other hand, is just about chock-full of local followers.
The More Multimedia-Related Gap
If we see the gap in terms of the places those followers are located in, we see quite a gap — you almost immediately jump to the conclusion that Twitter-ers are more “international”, Jiwai.de people are most certainly “local”, and Pownce is a mix of the two.
But there’s a bigger gap — the multimedia gap. About the only service that can match this (that yours truly is aware of) is Pownce; Jiwai.de allows you to embed pictures and even video in your microblog updates.
Of the two services that yours truly checks the most often, updates in Twitter are pretty much text-only (followed by quite a bit of links and “@replies”), while Jiwai.de is pretty much bombarded with pictures and the odd video. Meanwhile, Pownce updates to this day are still text-only, but if what happened on Jiwai.de is any indicator, we could be witness to docs, pics and even more literary extravaganda on Pownce… it has that ability (and the support)!
Being Followed… or at the Center of Attention?
There’s a bit of a difference in the way folks are described on Twitter, Pownce and Jiwai.de. The follow concept is well enshrined in Twitter; you either get followed around or follow some other Twitter-er. In Pownce, if the following is reciprocal, you have a friend; otherwise, you have only a “fan”. In Jiwai.de, however, when you’re followed, you’re told that “you’re part of the attention span” of another Jiwai.de microblogger.
The Chinese word for being part of the “attention span” is bei guanzhu (被关注), which equates to something along the lines of “being focused upon”, “being followed”, or — as I said it a moment ago — “part of the attention span” (ie “someone is paying attention to everything you do”).
The way these very words are used reflect pretty much on how things work in different parts of the planet. In the West, where individualism is the order of the day, you’re pretty much all-out after attention; you love it when folks follow you around. In China, though, the feeling that “someone is paying attention to everything you do” gives you a warm feeling that sometimes care about you.
Getting Very Local… In More Than One Way
The trophy for the most “localized” service, at the end of the day, goes out to Jiwai.de. Since we last blinked, Jiwai.de now supports AIM Instant Messenger and Fetion, a China Mobile service. If you take a look at everything that Jiwai.de supports (we don’t intend to run a free ad for these folks, but honestly, they’ve put in every last effort!), you’ll have an idea.
Jiwai.de supports…
• SMS and Web updates
• QQ (extremely popular especially in mainland China)
• MSN / Windows Live Messenger
• Google Talk
• Skype
• AOL Instant Messenger
• Fetion from China Mobile
• Shuimu Community (popular in the Chinese university world)
• Facebook (they’ve a Facebook ad)
• Yahoo! Messenger
Additionally, Jiwai.de allows you to update your Twitter account. (Knowing that none of those folks who “pays attention” to me on Jiwai.de speaks any e-wen (local slang for English), I had to actually cut my Jiwai.de-Twitter connection so that updates have to be done now separately on Twitter and Jiwai.de!
Given the support Jiwai.de has for IM services, the pressure is on for Twitter and Pownce!
Next week on techblog86 Mind the Gap Saturday: A crash course in Chinese numbers on the Internet. Prepare for the literal maths next Saturday!
NOTES
- The techblog86 website officially existed from 01 January 2008 through to late 2010.