From the Wall Street Journal China Journal:

The operator of one of China’s most popular social networking services, Kaixin001.com, has filed an unfair competition lawsuit against Beijing-based online entertainment company Oak Pacific Interactive, which started a competing service in October under the very similar name of Kaixin.com.

[...] The plaintiff’s site, Kaixin001.com, was launched in March 2008 and had recorded 20 million registered accounts and 700 million page views by April 2009, according to Chinese-language media. It is best known for its addictive online games, including some that are similar to Facebook’s “Parking War” and “Friends for Sale.” To monetize its traffic, in December Kaixin001.com began placing in-game advertisements in its Web game apps.

But the rapid growth of Kaixin001.com posed a direct challenge to Xiaonei.com, currently the biggest and most influential social networking Web site in China, which also happens to be owned by Oak Pacific Interactive. Created in 2005, Xiaonei.com, like Facebook before it, started out by focusing on college students (its name, in Chinese, means “on campus”). It was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive in 2006 and currently has around 70 million registered users, half of whom use the site at least once a month.

See another look at the case, from People’s Daily Online:

“A domain name is just the door of a social networking site. People keep revisiting our website because it has a good reputation for games,” Xu Chaojun, vice-president of Qianxiang company, told China Daily yesterday.

“Kaixin.com is not a copycat! We will fight for our right and reputation in court,” he said.

For a comprehensive background of Kaixin001, please read the coverage at littleredbook.cn.

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: social networking, unfair competition
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A Beijing court has agreed to hear a lawsuit filed by 3721, a Yahoo! subsidiary, against Chinese search engine Baidu on charges of unfair competition, a court official told Interfax Wednesday.

“We have just accepted the case and will be announcing a time for the court hearings later,” an official with the Beijing Haidian District People’s Court, who wished to remain anonymous, told Interfax on Wednesday.

In its lawsuit, 3721 accuses Baidu’s “IE Search Companion” and “Baidu SoBar” applications, which are downloaded onto users’ computers, of preventing netizens from using a similar product offered by 3721 named “Internet Assistant,” the Beijing court said in a report posted at www.chinacourt.org.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2005. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Baidu, unfair competition, Yahoo
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