Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
TOTAL NUMBER OF
FACEBOOK USERS
Over 150,000,000
10,000,000-35,000,000
5,000,000-9,999,999
1,000,000-4,999,999
500,000-999,999
Under 500,000
0
1000
2000
3000 Kilometers
No data
0
1000
2000 Miles
Figure 4.13
Registered Facebook Users, 2011.
Data from
: www.internetworldstats.com/facebook.htm#topaccessed
6/27/2011.
individuals in China and North Korea with the rest of the
world via this social media tool. In 2009, China banned
Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Only about one-third of
China's 1.3 billion people have Internet access. Chinese
who want to use Facebook have to use proxy servers to get
around the government's ban. Chinese social networks
have grown in place of Facebook. In 2011, the social net-
work Renren boasted 165 million Chinese users.
In 2005 and 2006, Chinese entrepreneur Wang Xing
launched the Chinese social network Xiaonei (“on cam-
pus”), which copied Facebook down to the color scheme.
Wang sold Xiaonei in 2006 for $4 million. Oak Pacifi c
Interactive got a steal, as the company is estimated to be
worth several billion dollars today. They renamed the site
Renren, which means “everybody” (Fig. 4.14). Renren is
not merely a copy of Facebook, however. Renren is credited
Figure 4.14
Beijing, China.
RenRen, the
Facebook of China, is a popu-
lar social network among col-
lege students. It now has over
165 million registered users.
Wang Xing, who launched and
sold Renren, has since launched
Chinese versions of Twitter and
Groupon.
© Alamy Limited.
