“fei si bu ke”

>From NY Times :
[[
Reporting for the BBC on Facebook’s attempt to establish itself as the
social networking site of choice in East Asia, Harsha Sharma observed:

Facebook’s struggle in East Asia is nowhere more apparent than in
China, where the site battles cloning and censorship.

It seems to be the butt of jokes there as it is called “fei si bu ke”;
the name sounds like a phrase which is translated as “doomed to die.”

According to Sharma:

Instead of using Facebook, internet users in East Asia prefer their
own local social networks – Cyworld in South Korea, Mixi in Japan and
in China it is RenRen (formerly Xiaonei).

Commenting on RenRen’s name change, The Times’s Paul Boutin noted:

Xiaonei means “on campus.” RenRen is literally “people, people” but
translates more accurately as “everybody.” Much like Facebook before
it, RenRen is in transition from its original focus on college
students to a wider audience of young adults.
]]
http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/fei-si-bu-ke/
(links to quoted BBC & Times pieces in there)

-- 
http://danny.ayers.name

Received on Tuesday, 22 September 2009 15:13:14 UTC