New generation of Chinese (IT) bloggers are up to something new
The Chinese Blogger Conference was the first grass-roots bloggers’ conference of its kind in China. I went to this event in Hangzhou last year for the first time. I have left China for 5 years and just got back for 2 months, it was a great opportunity for me to catch up what was going on in China blogosphere. The actual conference venue (different from this) was in a small hotel in a remote area of Hangzhou. It was very crowded and exciting bloggers were everywhere: they were well connected online and exciting to meet each other in real life. I got to know quite a few Web 2.0 companies, such as Douban.com, Tudou.com (video share site) and City8.com, a visual map service I use almost daily now… Of course, I met bloggers: , Bruce Wang, Rebecca of Rconversation and more. It enjoyed a live video interview section when Chinese artists European artists were talking to each other via Internet. (But I can’t find other blog coverages about it today).
This year, in the 3rd annual CNBloggerCon I noticed a new blogger network called Chinese Blogger Network (中国博客网络组, CBN). This blog network gives another view into a new generation of Chinese bloggers, something I am personally interested in because it is another way, other then building a BSP, to explore the commercial value of blogs. Chinese Blogger Network was found around Dec. 2006 by a group of Web 2.0 and technology bloggers. It is an ad/link network. Its goals are to explore “how blogger/blog makes money” and “to promote this kind of network in China”.
Today, I read a post by 郭启睿 (Guo Qiyu Qirui) published on Dec. 20, 2007 to invite committed, passionated bloggers to join his Utopia Blogger Union (乌托邦博客联盟). He listed 10 criteria for qualification, here are a brief translation:
- Must know the blogger in real life;
- Has been writing blog posts for more than 6 months, respect Creative Commons;
- Passionate about original writing and a perfectionist. Tries to avoid typos and use the most proper images on each post;
- Be able to maintain a user-friendly blog user interface and make it compatible with most browsers;
- Avoid others who copy or re-post the original writing without citation;
- Not against blog promotion and advertising；
- Stick to one’s own principle and not create controversy solely for the sake of fame;
- Not focused on one’s own company, teams or products, but solely focused on one’s own blogging interests;
- No spam and non contributing comments;
- No politics, understand Internet technologies and MUST be a advanced user of Google Groups and Gmail.
I believe the above criteria can be applied to the bloggers worldwide, not just Chinese bloggers, in order to build a great (but not necessarily a big) blogger network. So far, my favorite blog network is Brave New Traveler, a blog encourages and publishs high quality original writings.
“Weblog” is 10 years old on Dec. 17 2007. There are 120,000 new blogs launched every day and 17 new post published every second according to Technorati on Mar 2007. I believe the commonly held vision of a “grassroots blogger” is an out-of-date identity for most (but not all) of the Chinese blogosphere. The new generation of Chinese tech bloggers are: born in mid 1980s, good in English, college-educated, enjoy Western entertainment programs - American TV shows, DreamWorks movies and pop music. In a word, they are the generation growing up together with Internet, and many of them are proud to be a new generation of geek bloggers.
Blogs in both networks mentioned above are not about “grassroots” media. Unlike most current well known tech and business bloggers (e.g. IT blogger Keso, business blogger Fangjun) the new generation of tech bloggers are not from the tradition media or press industry. Blogs of CBN focus on Internet technologies, Web applications, Google and Digg, and have 50000+ feedburner subscribers in total. Guo Qiyu Qirui is interested in Internet and mobile telecoms applications. Obviously, they are not going to beat BSPs, such as Sina blog, Sohu blog or Blogbus in the same way, but how far can IT blog network in China go? Is it a right time to build a blog (ad) network in China?
Guo updated his blog ONE day later on Dec. 21 and said he received about 30 applications. Very nice, congratulations! I’m looking forward to blogging more about this new generation of Chinese bloggers and their networks.
6 Responses to “New generation of Chinese (IT) bloggers are up to something new”
It does seem like there are a lot of blog networks out there. They seem to be bound by some common interest and in return trade links, traffic, and sometimes get advertising from the network. Blogher.org comes to mind. I’m curious to see what other kind of groups are out there to support bloggers and what value bloggers get from it…whether it be financial or emotional benefit.
Hooo, thanks for your reviews.
It’s Guo Qirui(not Qiyu)
original blogger’s group is not a blog network. It’s more like a blogger’ sphere. It’s aimed to the bloggers rather than blogs.
Thanks for commenting aw! I’ve corrected the pinyin of your name. sorry about that.
I think your descriptor of “geek bloggers” is pretty key here. The question is whether or not we’re seeing the future of computer-club-esque mutual masturbation or a crossing-over of geek bloggers and their content to something that can be digested by the mainstream (where the bulk of the money is - all the cross-linking is meaningless unless there’s a reason to support ads). That said, there’s nothing wrong with remaining in self-sufficient isolation, but that’s not how Apple is experiencing its re-emergence into relevance.